CAS Space has significantly optimized the production of its Kinetica-1 solid-fuel launch vehicle. The assembly time for a single rocket has been reduced from three months to approximately 15 days. This shift supports the company's goal of transitioning to regular commercial launch services to meet the growing demand from satellite operators.
The production facility in the Nansha district is designed to manufacture up to 30 rockets annually. To achieve this capacity, the company moved away from a model where a single team managed the entire assembly process. Instead, operations are now divided across multiple workstations, allowing for parallel assembly of several rockets simultaneously.
The company has also adjusted its business model. Previously, production began only after receiving a specific order. Now, CAS Space maintains a stock of ready-to-launch rockets to reduce lead times. As a result, the period from order placement to launch has been shortened to less than six months.
Kinetica-1 is a four-stage solid-fuel rocket that first launched on July 27, 2022. It is currently recognized as the largest solid-fuel launch vehicle in China. The increased production speed is intended to address the rising need for frequent orbital deployments as satellite constellations continue to expand.
