Nebula-1 (Xingyun-1)
Deep Blue Aerospace
Reusable, kerolox orbital launch vehicle with VTVL first-stage recovery; 4–6 t to LEO, 3 t to SSO.
Key figurescomparable across the catalogue
- Mass
- 150,000 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
- Three stages (11 + 2 engines + upper stage), reusable first stage (VTVL)
- Payload to LEO
- 4,000–6,000 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
- Payload to SSO
- 3,000 kg
About
Nebula-1 (also known as Xingyun-1) is Deep Blue Aerospace’s three-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. Deep Blue Aerospace rates Nebula-1 at 4–6 t to low Earth orbit and 3 t to SSO, targeting the 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.