news

한어Русский языкEnglishFrançaisIndonesianSanskrit日本語DeutschPortuguêsΕλληνικάespañolItalianoSuomalainenLatina

On the occasion of completing the B3 round of financing, DeepBlue Aerospace founder Huo Liang and executive vice president Zhao Ya told the story behind the financing.

Author｜Octave

Editor: Wang Bo

"Jia Zi Guang Nian" exclusively learned that the domestic commercial aerospace company "Deep Blue Aerospace" recently completed the B3 round of strategic financing, which was funded by Zhenghe Yunfan Fund established by Zhengyue Investment. After completing this round of financing, Deep Blue Aerospace will set up an international business and service headquarters in Jimei District, Xiamen.

So far, DeepBlue Aerospace has completed three rounds of financing in less than three months, and has been recognized by many state-owned institutions. The B2 round of financing took place just half a month ago, led by Wuxi High-tech Zone Investment and Control Group, and completed and locked in nearly 1 billion yuan of funds. The B1 round was funded by Jigang Dongtai Fund and others.

The intensive financing activities form a "heaven and fire" contrast with the external investment environment.

Zhao Ya, executive vice president of Deep Blue Aerospace, has a real feeling about this. Since commercial aerospace was listed as a new quality productivity, the popularity of this industry has continued to rise, and local governments and relevant institutions are eager to learn about this track. He once traveled to four or five provinces for two consecutive weeks to make return visits.

"The most exaggerated thing is that when I went to a city for a return visit, there were only four people in our company, while the other party's municipal party secretary brought 40 people," said Zhao Ya.

Deep Blue Aerospace, founded at the end of 2016, has chosen a path with higher technical barriers.Develop and research liquid reusable launch vehicles.A year before Deep Blue Aerospace was founded, SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket completed its first recovery and was subsequently launched many times, significantly reducing the cost of rocket launches. Huo Liang, the founder of Deep Blue Aerospace, believes that this is the right technical path for commercial aerospace and the aerospace career he really wants to do.

So he resigned from his job in the system and turned to commercial aerospace, which is full of unknowns and challenges.

Huo Liang, a doctor of mechanical engineering from Tsinghua University, studied under the academician Liu Baicheng, a manufacturing expert, and worked as a senior engineer in the general design department of China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation. Although he and his team have accumulated certain experience in the field of technology, he told Jiazi Guangnian thatWhen research and development began, the risks and investment required for liquid reusable rocket technology were underestimated.

Technological challenges, market uncertainties, and doubts about the technology route almost permeated the first six years of Huo Liang's entrepreneurship.

It was not until 2023, when the Deep Blue aerospace engine series tests were successful, that Huo Liang gradually put his mind at ease and felt the market was bright. He said that this process was like "three years of peach, four years of apricot, and five years of plum", and he worked hard on the technology and finally saw the light of day.

Since then, Deep Blue Aerospace has made continuous technological breakthroughs and completed many "first" feats. Among them, Deep Blue Aerospace's "Thunder-5" engine is the first domestic pintle-type liquid oxygen-kerosene engine that uses 3D printing technology to achieve complete machine manufacturing; Deep Blue Aerospace has also completed the first domestic meter-level, ten-meter-level, and kilometer-level vertical take-off and landing liquid rocket recovery flight tests.

Last month, on July 21, Deep Blue Aerospace’s “Nebula-1” (Xingyun-1) launch vehicle successfully completed a series of tests of the first-stage power system;The company is expected to conduct China's first high-altitude recovery test of an orbital rocket early next month.At the end of this year, Deep Blue Aerospace's first "Nebula-1" rocket will complete its maiden flight. The "Nebula-2" rocket with a takeoff capacity of 1,000 tons is also in production and is scheduled to make its maiden flight next year.

In July this year, the Xingyun-1 launch vehicle conducted a series of tests on the three-engine parallel full-time sequential power system of the first stage.

Many people compare Deep Blue Aerospace with SpaceX.

In the early years, Musk tried to sell SpaceX to venture capitalists, but they were hard to convince. Musk explained: "Space is far from the comfort zone of almost any venture capital firm on Earth." When facing friends, Musk's approach was very different. He refused to let his friends invest because he thought at the time that SpaceX had only a 10% chance of success.

Today, SpaceX's success is obvious to all, and investors are less and less skeptical about commercial spaceflight. In terms of technical guidance, SpaceX has also pointed out a technical path for subsequent companies.

The industry is booming, and DeepBlue Aerospace has remained steady and calm in the face of rounds of financing. Unlike some companies in the industry that like to piggyback on SpaceX's concept, DeepBlue Aerospace is truly benchmarking SpaceX in terms of technology.

"When we are able to achieve launch and recovery, it should be close to its (SpaceX) state in 2015. Now it is probably at the stage before 2015," Huo Liang told "Jia Zi Guang Nian".

There is a gap, but everything is ready to go.

This article,「Jiazi light yearDialogue with Huo Liang, founder of Deep Blue Aerospace andGeneral ManagervicePresidentZhao Ya, trying to gain an in-depth understanding of its route selection, market changes, technical difficulties, return on investment, etc., and analyze why Deep Blue Aerospace is favored by capital, especially state-owned institutions?

The following is the interview content, which has been edited and organized.

1. Change: Fewer and fewer people are skeptical

Jiazi light year：This yearDeep Blue Aerospace has been making a lot of moves, raising funds in multiple rounds, and will make its first flight at the end of the year. How do you evaluate the development of Deep Blue Aerospace this year?

Huo Liang:This shows that the market has a certain degree of recognition of the technology path chosen by Deep Blue Aerospace and the certainty formed by its technological accumulation.The future is becoming clearer.

At the beginning of the project, we lacked products and research results, such as variable thrust pintle engines, rocket recovery control system technology, and rocket landing gear. We said we could do it, but without actual data support, people would question whether we could really do it.Now we have concrete data on product costs, material input costs, etc., which have become visible realities.

Therefore, multiple factors, such as the maturity of technology, the clarity of business prospects, and the clarity of market demand, have led to fewer and fewer people being skeptical about this.

Jiazi light year: Behind the multiple rounds of financing this year, what changes can you feel in the market’s attitude towards commercial space?

Huo Liang: They are more confident about the development of commercial space.In fact, by analyzing and referring to the US commercial aerospace market, we can obtain some quantitative data rather than just intuitive understanding.

Commercial spaceflight is both about spaceflight and business.The commercialization process of commercial space in the United States began in 2008, and large-scale commercialization began around 2012. It has been 10 to 15 years since then.It turns out that there is uncertainty in the Chinese market regarding commercial space travel because many technical indicators are beyond our reach, which leads to a wait-and-see attitude among everyone.

For example, a key data is the price per kilogram of low-Earth orbit. In the United States, this price has dropped to $3,000 (about RMB 22,000). In my country, the price has dropped from RMB 200,000 in 2016 to less than RMB 100,000, and is currently close to RMB 80,000, and there is still room for further decline.

As we get closer to the United States in various indicators, market participants are more confident in the commercial prospects of space travel. When a certain critical value is reached, commercial demand and business models will explode.

Jiazi light year: 2015 is considered the first year of commercial space flight. Do you agree with this statement?

Huo Liang:In 2015, my country saw the emergence of commercial aerospace companies for the first time, especially those involved in rockets and satellites. It can be said that the first batch of companies were born at that time. In 2015, Musk successfully completed the land recovery of the first stage of the rocket, which attracted worldwide attention. This made the domestic investment community and the public begin to have a preliminary understanding of commercial aerospace.

That year I also decided to move towards commercial space travel, which I believe is a correct and promising direction.It will become an important supplement to my country's efforts to build a space power in addition to its state-owned aerospace industry.

Jiazi Light Year: What changes have taken place in China’s commercial space industry over the past eight years?

Huo Liang:At the beginning, the industry was very weak and had a relatively weak foundation. It lacked talent, capital, consensus, market, infrastructure and supply chain. In the past few years, we have been accumulating strength for the development of commercial aerospace.

We are delighted to see that in recent years, both in the field of rockets and satellites, everyone has begun to do things that have not been done before. These have done a lot of accumulation work for the industry to really take off and move towards commercialization.I think the real excitement in the industry is yet to come.

2. Choice: Reusable liquid rockets are a difficult path to take.But the choice is not difficult

Jiazi Guangnian: What kind of psychological fluctuations did you experience when you jumped out of the system? Was that decision easy for you?

Huo Liang:Fortunately, there weren’t too many twists and turns.This is what I really want to do, and we won’t not do it just because it’s difficult.If we are in the solid launch vehicle business, that does not fit in with my philosophy.

I think the liquid reusable rocket is the right path, and it is what I want to do.This road is indeed difficult, but the choice is not difficult.

Jiazi Light Years: What is Deep Blue Aerospace’s strategy? What did you choose to do first and what did you choose to do later? What are the criteria?

Huo Liang:Our strategy is very clear. We have a slogan, which is "to become the promoter and leader of the space transportation industry." In short,We are actually using reusable launch vehicles to promote the development of the space transportation industry.

Our first step is to develop partially reusable launch vehicles. For example, Deep Blue's Nebula-1 and Nebula-2 rockets basically meet this characteristic. Next, we plan to develop fully reusable launch vehicles, which is already in our strategic planning. This will further reduce costs and make the way for humans to enter space "flight-like".

The so-called flight-based means that the carrier vehicle flies into space like an airplane and then returns, instead of being discarded after a single use.We will be able to use these vehicles repeatedly for space flights, just like airplanes.

Jiazi Light Year: In your mind, how do you evaluate the market space and market prospects of reusable rockets?

Huo Liang:I am very optimistic about reusable rockets. Let's use a set of data as an example. Before 2012, Musk's company had almost zero share in the US rocket launch market. From 2012 to 2016, when there was no rocket recovery technology, its market share in the US was a few percent. From 2016 to the present, if we only count the data from 2020, we can see that Musk's company has reached about 75% of the US launch market.

Although there are nearly 10 large and small rocket companies in the United States besides SpaceX, SpaceX occupies the vast majority of the market share, and it has achieved this by relying on recycled rockets. So I am very optimistic about the future development of recycled rockets.It is a disruptive product that will eliminate most traditional disposable rockets.

Jiazi Light Years: You have chosen the path of reusable liquid rockets. Are you following the trajectory of Musk and his rocket company?

Huo Liang:Yes, because this road (of reusable rockets) is very difficult,Everyone is moving in this direction, but the only one doing the best, or already able to achieve commercialization and engineering applications, is SpaceX.

For example, the New Glenn rocket developed by Blue Origin is also trying to recover the first-stage rocket and has begun relevant tests. In addition, Rocket Lab in the United States is also conducting research on recovery technology, but they use splashdown recovery.

Even in the United States, only a few companies can reach this level of rocket recovery.

Jiazi Light Years: There is a joke on the Internet that "Once Musk opens source,Domestic technology is advancing”. How do you evaluate this view?

Huo Liang:In fact, its commercial rocket technology has never been open source, only electric vehicle technology has been open source. The United States still maintains a blockade on commercial rocket technology because these technologies are relatively sensitive. But because of SpaceX, many people have indeed learned about aerospace.

It turns out that our country's spaceflight is relatively mysterious to the general public, and people can only see the moment of success. However, it is difficult for the general public to perceive how the entire process is produced, whether there are twists and turns and failures in the middle, and the entire manufacturing and launch process. They also rarely come into contact with people working in spaceflight-related fields because it is an independent system.

SpaceX has successfully changed this reality and has made great contributions to making space rockets accessible and understandable to the general public.

So technically speaking, open source is out of the question, butIn terms of technical direction guidance, SpaceX has pointed out a technical path for subsequent companies.Back in 2015, including rocket recovery and most of the technical routes Musk is currently using, were widely questioned.SpaceX has proven the correctness of these technical approaches with results.

Jiazi Light Years: In your opinion, Deep Blue Aerospace’s current stage of development is equivalent to which year’s stage of SpaceX?

Huo Liang:It probably achieved its first successful recovery of a rocket in 2015 and at sea in 2016.When we are able to launch and recover, we should be close toitThe status in 2015 is now aboutitThis stage before 2015.

In May 2022, the Xingyun-M kilometer-level VTVL vertical recovery flight test

3. Focus: Commercial aerospace must also reduce costs and increase efficiency

Jiazi Light Year: How do you understand the technical difficulty of liquid reusable rockets? How much higher is the technical difficulty of liquid reusable rockets than that of non-reusable rockets?

Huo Liang:In fact, the technological advantage can be directly seen from the price of the rocket. We can currently propose that(Deep Blue Aerospace's liquid reusable rocket) can do approximatelyOne kg load30,000YuanRMB.After recycling, the selling price may be further reduced. Here we are referring to the selling price, not the cost. The cost will be lower, which is a reflection of the comprehensive benefits.

For example, in terms of components,Our liquid oxygen-kerosene engine is capable of multiple consecutive ignitions, the current test shows three times. AndWe launched the domestichaveVariable thrust liquid oxygen-kerosene engine, currentlyThis technology has made the fastest progress in the domestic private aerospace field.。

As for the overall manufacturing cost of the engine, although it is inconvenient to disclose the specific figures, it is certain thatOur costs are more than 40% lower than our main competitors.In terms of the technical indicators of the recovery legs, the rocket can remain stable when it falls from more than 0.5 meters, and the attitude angle can be greater than 5 degrees. These technical parameters are leading in the industry, and some of them are original.

For another example, we use stainless steel tanks. The weight of stainless steel tanks divided by the cost is significantly better than the tanks used by the system or other companies.The cost-effectiveness should be at least twice theirs.

Jiazi Light Years: Does Deep Blue Aerospace’s cost reduction and efficiency improvement have anything to do with the first principles advocated by Musk?

Huo Liang:This is related. We have actually been benchmarking and learning with him. He does have a lot worth learning from, including his so-called first principles and some ideas on the commercialization of aerospace.

Jiazi Light Year: Will you study Musk?

Huo Liang:We often study him.Always watching his movements, compared with their products.He is our benchmark, so we have to study him in depth first.

Jiazi Light Year: What are the main research channels?

Huo Liang:Mainly based on public data, because he disclosed a lot of information. For example, their Starbase and McGregor base are live broadcast 24 hours a day, and the whole world can watch its monitoring, which is a very advanced thing.

Jiazi Guangnian: You mentioned before that the key words for Deep Blue Aerospace's development are "focus" and "deep cultivation". From the perspective of rocket research and development, how do you understand these two words?

Huo Liang: We have focused all our resources on breakthroughs in the recycling and reuse technology of liquid rockets.We did not develop disposable or solid rocket models, but instead continued to tackle hard-core technical problems in the field of recoverable rockets that have not yet been solved or engineered.

For example, our liquid oxygen-kerosene pintle engine technology is unique to Deep Blue in China. It is not derived from or originated from mature technology of state-owned enterprises, nor is it imported from abroad. We have gradually developed and improved this technology based on relatively weak technical foundations. So far,We have initially mastered the pintle and large-scale variable thrust engine technologies.

I have a conclusion:A disposable rocket is a sub-unit of a reusable rocket.class。What does it mean?The technology involved in recovering rockets is more extensive and difficult than that of disposable rockets.

So we have made a lot of innovations in application, whether it is production process technology, rocket architecture, or key technologies of the rocket in multiple systems.

When discussing rocket technology, we have to mention landing gear, which we call "landing legs". For example, Deep Blue is the first and only company in China to successfully develop and manufacture "landing legs" (landing gear) made of carbon fiber composite materials. This is the result of our independent research and development. It also reflects our determination to deepen our technology.

In April this year, Deep Blue Aerospace's "Nebula-1" rocket stage 1 conducted a 200-second long-range power system test run.

4. Turning point: Peach three years, apricot four years, pear five years

Jiazi Light Years: What is the biggest difficulty and crisis you have faced in your more than seven years at Deep Blue Aerospace?

Huo Liang:There were many difficulties and crises, the biggest challenge probably being the technological challenge and the uncertainty of the market at that time.

Frankly speaking, when we first started developingThe team underestimated the risks and investment required for the technologyFor example, in order to achieve variable thrust and smooth thrust adjustment of the engine, we developed technologies such as the pintle, but in fact, its design space was very narrow. We went through a very complicated process and had many failures.

Market uncertainty means that both domestic and international industries are changing rapidly.The entire industry, including us, is under pressure to see whether spaceflight can be commercialized and whether it can be profitable after commercialization. If it cannot be commercialized, it will actually deviate from the original intention of commercial spaceflight.

Jiazi Guangnian: When did you feel the challenge of R&D was the greatest?

Huo Liang:Basically, we can say,Before 2023, the overall challenge is quite big.

Let me give you an example from our engine development. At the beginning, the combustion effect of the engine was not good. We gradually solved the combustion problem through simulation, experiments and reference to some foreign cases, but that was only on a small scale prototype.

When we scaled it up to a rocket that goes into orbit, we found that it was very expensive to make.If we follow the traditional technology, we will not be able to afford it in the future. So we have to think about how to produce such an engine.

If it is put into a traditional state-owned enterprise manufacturing unit, the cycle is very long and it cannot meet our needs for rapid iteration. We can only develop new processes. However,Developing a new process means that the design needs to change accordingly, and the original design cannot be used. We have to redesign it again to adapt to the introduction of additive manufacturing.At that time, additive manufacturing printers were still very small, with only 400 mm printers available at the time.

There were many problems with this process at the time. The first product printed was not up to standard and it failed when it was first tested.Many people questioned that using a technology that had never been used before might not be feasible and that the entire direction chosen might be incorrect.But we said that there are companies abroad that have used this technology and have used these products in aviation. The domestic answer is also very direct, saying that China is China and foreign countries are foreign countries.

We studied hard to find out why others could do it and what the gap was between us and foreign countries in this regard. So we peeled away these things and looked at them in detail, only to find that we might not be as strict as others in controlling the composition of materials.

In terms of the debugging and environment of the entire equipment, we may be far behind others and not as meticulous as them. But in fact,If controlled well, domestic performance is similar to that of foreign countries.We even found a supplier of raw materials for making rocket engines for the United States, which was actually a domestic company.

When we made the engine, we became more and more confident. Deep Blue was the first company in China to use 3D printing to make rocket engines, which is recognized in the industry.

In July this year, the three-engine parallel power system of the first stage of the Xingyun-1 carrier rocket was tested for 180 seconds.

Jiazi Guangnian: After 2023, do you feel that both technology and market conditions will be clearer?

Huo Liang:In fact, starting from 2023, especially as the tests of our engine series were carried out, the relevant risk pressure was gradually released.I feel like I am becoming more and more confident about our technology.

When relevant results came out, the outside world could sense this more clearly.Starting from 2023, the whole situation will be like "peaches for three years, apricots for four years, and pears for five years", which means it will blossom and bear fruit.

Jiazi Light Year: How to understand the technical value of the "Nebula-1" rocket?

Huo Liang:Its value should be very high, because it marks the arrival of an era. Specifically, our country has entered a new era in the field of rocket recovery and reuse. This first shows thatOur Chinese companies have thoroughly mastered this technology from an engineering perspective and have successfully implemented it, ushering in an era of rocket recovery and reuse that belongs to China.From a technical perspective, this involves many breakthroughs, which is a series of technological breakthroughs made around achieving this product and technical attributes.

Jiazi Light Year: How confident are you about the launch of the Nebula-1 rocket at the end of the year?

Huo Liang:I am quite confident. First, we will do a lot of work before the launch to ensure that the launch has the highest success rate. Second, we have prepared more than one rocket.

According to the results of our current ground tests,Achieving successful orbital insertion and recovery is only a matter of time.There may be some setbacks the first time, but the second time, we can ensure that it can achieve a successful result based on the first time.

5. Now: Use technological innovation to achieve earlier profits

Jiazi Light Year: For commercial aerospace, how difficult is it to move from technology to engineering?

Huo Liang:Engineering is indeed a difficult problem. Rockets are complex products made up of hundreds of thousands of parts and are very complex mechanical devices. The performance of these parts and materials is almost maximized because they are only designed to work for a few minutes. Therefore, they cannot make any mistakes. Once the limit is exceeded, the parts will be damaged.

For manufacturing, the biggest difficulty is consistency.How can you ensure the continuous stability of product quality and be able to successfully control it? This is a threshold that all rocket companies may need to cross. Having the ability to deliver products in batches stably and reliably is our goal now.

Jiazi Light Years: When do you estimate Deep Blue Aerospace will be able to achieve profitability?

Huo Liang:If everything develops at the expected speed and pattern,We should be able to achieve relatively substantial revenue in 2026.

Jiazi light-year:Next, ask Zhao Ya，Some people say that investing in commercial spaceflight is because it has a very high return on investment, with SpaceX being the most obvious example. What do you think of this statement?

Zhao Ya:The return on investment is high, for sure. Take SpaceX for example, they achieved $9 billion in revenue and $3 billion in net profit last year. Just in the past two months, SpaceX's market value also surpassed ByteDance, becoming the world's largest non-listed company, with a valuation of about 1.5 trillion yuan in RMB, so the return on investment is definitely very significant.

In comparison, the current valuation of the largest private rocket company in China does not exceed 20 billion RMB. So for a trillion-dollar commercial aerospace company like the United States, I believe that China will also have similar companies.

And it won’t be for too long.If estimated, it will take about 7 years.In fact,We just mentioned SpaceX repeatedly, and now we are facingMoreIt's not a technical problem, but an engineering and production problem.But these problems are precisely China's strong advantages, so the development speed will be very fast.

Sixty Light Years: Next Deep BlueaerospaceWhat other financing or even IPO plans are there?

Zhao Ya:We haven't discussed the listing plan in detail yet, but it may be carried out relatively quickly for us. I mainly want to talk about the financing aspect.We may have more financing activities in the next year and a half. But after that, we will be able to achieveLargeProfitable, the profit margin is expected to be quite high.

Especially in the second half of this year, we expect to continue to raise funds frequently. The second half of this year can be described as "accumulating strength for a breakthrough", that is,The accumulation of the previous years will explode in the business nodes in the second half of this year.SexuallyShow up.

For example, we just completed the test run of the power system last month, and the rocket will be shipped to Inner Mongolia this week. At the beginning of next month, we will conduct China's first high-altitude recovery test of a rocket that can enter orbit. If everything goes well, about a month later, we will conduct a recovery test at the 100-kilometer level, that is, at the edge of the atmosphere.

In addition, the large engine used in the large-scale "Nebula-2" rocket we mentioned began production last month. It is also the largest liquid rocket engine among private rocket companies. Starting from this month, the igniter, generator, semi-system and full system test will be carried out successively. By November, the completion rate should have reached 90%.

Therefore, we expect that DeepBlue’s valuation will increase significantly every month in the second half of this year.

(Cover image and accompanying images in this article are from: Deep Blue Aerospace)

【Jia Zi Live Room Preview】

This Thursday (August 15) at 14:00, Zhang Yijia, founder and CEO of Jiazi Light Year, will talk with Huang Zhaohanniman, founder of "AI Product Manager Base Camp", former Tencent PM, with 12 years of AI and 15 years of Internet background, in a "0.5x speed" and easy-to-understand way, about how to run PMF (product market fit) in the AI ​​era. During the live broadcast, the two guests will also answer questions from the audience and communicate with everyone. If you are curious about the AI ​​era, don't miss it!

Scan the QR code on the poster to schedule a live broadcast and enter the live broadcast exchange group in advance