Origin Space

Origin Space (起源太空), formally Origin Space Technology Co., Ltd., was founded in 2017/2019 by Su Meng (a Harvard-trained astrophysicist and University of Hong Kong physics professor) and describes itself as China's first company dedicated to the exploration and utilization of space resources. The company is headquartered in Nanjing, Jiangsu, with a secondary office in Beijing, and has raised over $22 million in funding, including a Series A round led by Matrix Partners China and Linear Venture.

Origin Space's long-term goal is to develop mineral resources, including rare metals, from near-Earth asteroids. Toward that end it has built and operated a series of technology-demonstration spacecraft: an ultraviolet spectroscopy satellite (launched September 2019), a Lobster Eye X-ray telescope satellite (July 2020), and the NEO-1 satellite, launched on a Long March 6 rocket on April 27, 2021, which validated debris-capture and asteroid-resource-acquisition technologies by releasing a small tethered target and recapturing it with a deployable net. In June 2021 the company launched Yangwang-1, described as China's first commercial optical/ultraviolet space telescope, used for asteroid detection and space-debris monitoring as part of its growing Yangwang Constellation.

Beyond its NEO series of space-mining technology satellites (with NEO-2 and the NEO-X space mining robot in development), Origin Space has also worked on an M² lunar rover concept intended to carry a 200 kg payload for lunar resource exploration and mining-technology verification. The company markets its data and technology across geospatial intelligence, energy monitoring, environmental protection, and agriculture applications, in addition to its core space-resources and debris-remediation ambitions.