Nebula-1
Deep Blue Aerospace
Reusable, kerolox orbital launch vehicle with VTVL first-stage recovery; ~2,000 kg to LEO.
Key figurescomparable across the catalogue
- Mass
- 150,000 kg
- Payload capacity
- 2,000 kg
Normalised to common units so this product can be compared with others in its category. The supplier's own wording is below.
As published by the supplier
- Propellant
- Kerosene / liquid oxygen (kerolox)
- Configuration
- Two-stage, reusable first stage (VTVL)
- Payload to LEO
- ~2,000 kg
- Height
- ~30.2 m (orbital variant, Nebula-1A)
- Diameter
- 3.35 m (first stage)
- Launch mass
- ~150 t
- Status
- In development; VTVL test campaign ongoing
About
Nebula-1 (also known as Xingyun-1) is Deep Blue Aerospace’s two-stage, kerosene/liquid-oxygen orbital launch vehicle, powered by the company’s Leiting series of engines. The rocket is designed with a recoverable first stage that performs a powered vertical takeoff, vertical landing (VTVL) descent and touchdown, similar in concept to SpaceX’s Falcon 9 booster recovery. Nebula-1 is sized to deliver approximately 2,000 kg to low Earth orbit, targeting the small-to-medium satellite and constellation launch market. Deep Blue Aerospace has validated the vehicle’s recovery approach through an extensive series of VTVL test flights, including a milestone kilometer-altitude hop in May 2022 (a first for a Chinese liquid rocket) and a September 2024 high-altitude test that completed ten of eleven flight objectives before an anomaly during final touchdown. The company continues working toward Nebula-1’s maiden orbital launch and first-stage recovery.
Documentation
No public datasheet yet — request the datasheet / ICD from the supplier.