China's private
space sector is getting ready for liftoff.
OneSpace, a startup based in Beijing, hopes to make history on Thursday as the country's first private company to launch its own rocket.
Founded in 2015, OneSpace is often likened to Elon Musk's rocket company,
SpaceX, a comparison that founder and CEO
Shu Chang doesn't shy away from.
"OneSpace's situation right now is very much like where SpaceX stood in its early years," Shu told CNNMoney in an interview. "SpaceX is the first in the US. We're the first in China."
OneSpace plans to launch its 9-meter tall OS-X rocket at a base in northwestern China. It says the aim of the mission is to collect data for a research project it is working on with the Aviation Industry Corporation of China, a state-owned company.
"This is the first rocket developed and built entirely with homegrown technology," Shu said.
But some of the company's claims have been met with skepticism.
Xin Zhang, a professor of aerospace engineering at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, said he doubted the rocket is entirely OneSpace's own work.
Shu says the rocket only took three years to develop and build.
"That's supersonic speed," according to Zhang, who said it can take companies as long as 10 years.
OneSpace says it has so far raised 500 million yuan ($78 million), which is a paltry sum in an industry that regularly swallows billions of dollars, Zhang added.
"I think it's difficult unless they cut corners," he said.
Like a growing number of startups, OneSpace wants to use its rockets to help companies launch small satellites for a range of uses, including improving internet access on planes and trains.
It is planning to roll out a line of rockets later this year that it says could help halve the cost of satellite launches.
Related: SpaceX to launch demo satellites for its high-speed internet project
Its ultimate goal is to make space accessible to ordinary people, according to Shu. Someday, the company would like its rockets to be able to take humans to space, but for now it needs to stay grounded and "practical."
"Many compare us to SpaceX but to be honest, the gap is more than a little," the CEO said.
"No matter how good your story is, what matters is if you have launched a rocket or not. It's the benchmark of a rocket company. So this launch is crucial to everything — capital investment, media attention and the government's support."
Shu says that like SpaceX in its early days, OneSpace is used to facing doubters.
"When OneSpace was founded in 2015, we visited a lot of business insiders and experts, and they all said it's impossible," he said.
The company claims it has lowered costs in part by using a specially designed electrical system that weighs 10 times less than those typically used in other rockets.