---
title: "China’s Link Space Unveiled Design for a Reusable Rocket"
description: "A Chinese private company called Link Space just unveiled plans for New Line 1 — otherwise known as Xin Gan Xian 1, its first reusable rocket design."
date: "2017-09-21"
modified: "2017-09-21"
authors:
  - name: "Brad Jones"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/bradj.md"
url: "https://futurism.com/chinas-link-space-unveiled-design-for-a-reusable-rocket"
categories:
  - "Off-World"
  - "Space"
tags:
  - "link space"
  - "new line 1"
  - "reusable rocket"
  - "SpaceX"
---

# China’s Link Space Unveiled Design for a Reusable Rocket

![](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/rocket-1245696_1920.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: \<a href="https://pixabay.com/en/rocket-ses-9-launch-cape-canaveral-1245696/" target="\_blank"\>Pixabay\</a\>\</em\>*

## Reusable Rockets

China's first private rocket company has [unveiled the design](<http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Chinese_company_eyes_development_of_reusable_launch_vehicle_999.html>) for a reusable space launch system, that works in a similar manner to [SpaceX's Falcon 9 booster](<https://futurism.com/the-40th-flight-of-the-falcon9-was-a-success.md>). Link Space's New Line 1 — otherwise known as Xin Gan Xian 1 — is a small launch vehicle that's tailored for use in microsatellite and nanosatellite launches.

The two-stage liquid rocket will measure 66 feet in length, have a diameter of 5.9 feet, and will have a mass of 33 metric tons pre-launch. Its takeoff thrust of 400 kN will allow it to send around 440 pounds of equipment into a sun-synchronous orbit of between 155 and 342 miles.

Only the first stage of the New Line 1 rocket is reusable. However, Link Space has high hopes that a future iteration of the technology will also have a reusable second stage, making it even more desirable for commercial space programs.

## Space Spending

It costs a huge amount of money to send things into space. However, reusable rockets like the New Line 1 can mitigate the costs substantially.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDYI_ncr458

A brand new New Line 1 rocket costs $4.5 million to launch. However, reusing the first stage of the rocket drops the cost to just $2.25 million for subsequent launches. [SpaceX's Falcon 9](<https://futurism.com/spacexs-falcon-9-will-aid-in-a-us-air-force-launch.md>) offers a cost reduction of [around 30 percent](<http://spacenews.com/spacexs-reusable-falcon-9-what-are-the-real-cost-savings-for-customers/>) when its first stage rocket is reused — although it's capable of lifting much heavier payloads, so the actual price tag is far higher.

SpaceX is very cool and Falcon 9 is extremely great, we take SpaceX as our goal and guider, because there are too many advantages for us to learn," said Link Space founder and CEO Hu Zhenyu in an [interview with ](<http://www.astrowatch.net/2017/09/in-footsteps-of-spacex-chinese-company.html>)*[AstroWatch](<http://www.astrowatch.net/2017/09/in-footsteps-of-spacex-chinese-company.html>)*.

## More

- [Moving Forward, All of SpaceX’s Rockets Should be Reusable](<https://futurism.com/moving-forward-all-of-spacexs-rockets-should-be-reusable.md>)
- [Elon Musk Says His Reusable Rockets Will Make Space Access 100-Times Cheaper](<https://futurism.com/elon-musk-says-his-reusable-rockets-will-make-space-access-100-times-cheaper.md>)
- [Elon Musk: With New SpaceX Tech, Rocket Costs Will Drop By A Factor of 100](<https://futurism.com/elon-musk-with-new-spacex-tech-rocket-costs-will-drop-by-a-factor-of-100.md>)
- [So. Why Did SpaceX Land a Rocket on a Barge?](<https://futurism.com/spacex-land-rocket-barge.md>)
- [Europe’s New Reusable Rocket Design Borrows Heavily From SpaceX](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/europe-reusable-rocket-design-spacex.md>)
- [Watch a Piece of a SpaceX Rocket Careen Back Down to Earth](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/piece-spacex-rocket-careen-down-earth.md>)
- [Elon Musk Just Dissed Russia’s New Reusable Rocket Design](<https://futurism.com/elon-musk-dissed-russia-new-rocket-design.md>)
- [SpaceX’s Reusable Rockets Could Save the Company a Lot of Money](<https://futurism.com/spacexs-reusable-rockets-could-save-the-company-a-lot-of-money.md>)