A Chinese reusable suborbital spacecraft built to support low-cost research and future space tourism has successfully completed a key test flight, marking another milestone in the rapid expansion of the country’s commercial space sector.
The vehicle, known as PH-1, was developed by Beijing-based commercial aerospace firm CAS Space. The company says the spacecraft is designed to provide extended periods of microgravity for scientific experiments while also serving as a technological pathfinder for eventual passenger-carrying suborbital flights.
The PH-1 blasts into the sky at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center on the edge of the Gobi Desert in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region on Monday.
The latest test mission took place on Monday from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, located on the edge of the Gobi Desert. PH-1 lifted off at approximately 4 p.m. local time and followed a suborbital trajectory that carried it to an altitude of about 120 kilometers, crossing the Kármán line — commonly recognized as the boundary between Earth’s atmosphere and outer space.
After reaching its peak altitude, the spacecraft began its descent toward a predefined recovery zone. During the flight, the recoverable payload cabin separated from the booster at roughly 70 kilometers above Earth. The unpowered cabin continued climbing briefly on inertia before falling back through the atmosphere. At around 10 kilometers in altitude, it deployed a parachute and completed a controlled descent, touching down precisely at its designated landing site.
CAS Space said the flight validated several critical technologies required for reusable spacecraft operations. These included atmospheric re-entry deceleration, parachute-based recovery systems, and precision landing control of the payload cabin. Engineers also tracked the performance of key subsystems throughout the ascent, microgravity phase, and descent to assess reliability and design margins.
According to the company, PH-1 is capable of delivering a stable microgravity environment lasting more than 300 seconds — significantly longer than what can typically be achieved with drop towers or parabolic aircraft flights. The spacecraft’s flight profile is optimized to maximize experiment time in reduced-gravity conditions, making it particularly attractive for scientific and industrial research.
The test payload included an experimental laser-based 3D printer designed to operate in microgravity, allowing researchers to study additive manufacturing techniques for potential space-based production. Also aboard were rose seeds that had previously been exposed to spaceflight, supporting ongoing experiments in space-assisted plant breeding and biological research.
Shi Xiaoning, PH-1’s chief designer and project manager at CAS Space, said the spacecraft is primarily intended to offer affordable suborbital research services. He noted that the vehicle can provide minute-level microgravity conditions with higher quality and stability than most existing ground-based or aircraft-based alternatives. Shi added that such conditions are especially valuable for plant science, biomedical studies, and advanced materials research.
Looking further ahead, Shi said similar spacecraft could eventually be adapted for suborbital space tourism once the underlying technologies mature. Such missions would allow passengers to experience brief periods of weightlessness and view Earth from the edge of space.
CAS Space emphasized that PH-1 was designed with reusability and flexible mission profiles in mind, aiming to reduce costs in the commercial launch market. The company plans to evolve the recoverable payload cabin into an orbital-class spacecraft capable of remaining in space for up to a year, flying as many as 10 reuse cycles, and supporting in-orbit manufacturing activities.
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