China's first sub-orbital rocket designed and built by a private enterprise was launched on Thursday morning from a test base in northwestern China.

中国首个由民营企业自主设计和建造的亚轨道火箭于5月17日上午7点33分在中国西北实验基地发射升空。

The OS-X suborbital rocket, developed and made by One-Space Technology in Beijing, blasted off at 7:33 am. It flew 306 seconds and traveled 273 kilometers through the atmosphere before falling back to the ground, the company said.

这是由北京零壹空间科技公司开发的OS-X亚轨道火箭。该公司表示，它的飞行时间达到了306秒，在大气中飞行了273公里后回到地面。

With a length of 9 meters and a weight of 7.2 metric tons, the rocket reached a hypersonic speed of Mach 5.7 - 5.7 times the speed of sound, or 1.94 kilometers per second. It reached an altitude of 38.7 km.

火箭长9米，重7.2吨，最快速度达到5.7马赫（5.7倍音速），即1.94千米/秒，最高高度达到38.7千米。

The mission verified the rocket's overall design and reliability, the company said. It fulfilled a long, controllable flight, carrying a payload for Shenyang Aircraft Design and Research Institute under Aviation Industry Corp of China, obtaining a great deal of data for the rocket designers and the institute.

The company said the craft adopted several instruments that were new to Chinese rockets, such as the drag-mitigating pole and built-in communications devices.

该公司提出，这次任务证实了火箭的整体设计的可靠性。本次载荷客户为中国航空工业集团公司沈阳飞机设计研究所，本次火箭为客户提供了长时间且可控的飞行任务，为零壹空间和客户公司获取了大量的数据。该公司表示该飞行器采取了几项对于中国火箭来说较为新颖的产品，如减阻杆和内置通讯设备。

Inspired by Elon Musk and his legendary company SpaceX, at least four private Chinese companies - OneSpace, Land-Space, LinkSpace and i-Space - have announced plans to develop, make and launch carrier rockets. Through Thursday's mission, OneSpace has become the first to realize the goal.

Research and development of the OS-X took only one year. OneSpace said its designers and engineers are able to develop and produce almost all key parts of a rocket, noting that many of them have worked for State-owned space contractors.

受Elon Musk和他的传奇公司SpaceX的启发，中国至少有4家民营航空公司——零壹空间、蓝箭空间、翎客航天、星际荣耀，都宣布了他们研制和发射运载火箭的计划。而本周四的火箭发射，让零壹空间成为第一个实现这个目标的公司。零壹空间表示，OS-X的研发只花了一年时间，其设计人员和工程师能够开发和生产几乎所有火箭的关键部件，并指出，其中许多工作人员有为国有航空承包商工作的经验。

OS-X's maximum speed is Mach 20, or 6.8 km/s.

The rocket will mainly be used to conduct proof-of-concept flights for new-concept aircraft or spacecraft developed by OneSpace's clients to verify their aerodynamic designs. Many domestic institutes have designed new concepts of aircraft and spacecraft, and these futuristic craft need to conduct test flights atop a rocket to examine whether their design will work.

OS-X的最高速度可达20马赫，即6.8千米/秒。该火箭将主要用于对新概念飞机或由零壹空间客户开发的航天器进行概念验证飞行，以验证其空气动力学设计。许多国内机构已经设计了飞机和航天器的新概念，而这些未来主义的飞行器需要在火箭上进行试验飞行，以验证是否可行。

Established in 2015, a year now widely deemed as the opening chapter of China's commercial space industry, OneSpace has become a rising star in the country's space arena, which has long been dominated by State-owned giants.

Its rapid growth has been possible thanks to the government's efforts to foster the commercial space sector and encourage participation from private enterprises.

中国零壹空间成立于2015年，而这一年被广泛视为中国商业航空领域元年。中国航空领域曾一直被国有企业所主导，而如今零壹空间已经成为这一领域的后起之秀。零壹空间能有如此快速的发展很大程度上得益于政府对培育商业航天部门和鼓励私营企业所作出的努力。

The company also has taken advantage of the government's measures to enhance the integrated development between the civilian and defense sectors, Shu Chang, founder and chief executive of OneSpace, said at a news conference on Thursday after the launch.

Shu said his company is developing the OS-M1, a larger rocket, to send small satellites to Sun-synchronous orbits or low-Earth orbits. He said the OS-M1's debut flight will take place near the end of 2018.

Ma Chao, OneSpace's president, said the OS-X is scheduled to make another three launches this year.

零壹空间的创始人兼首席执行官舒畅在火箭发射后的新闻发布会上表示，其公司还利用政府的帮助来加强民间和国防部门之间的一体化发展。舒畅表示，其公司正在开发OS-M1，这是一种能将小型卫星送到太阳同步轨道或近地轨道的更大型的火箭。他进一步表示，OS-M1的首次飞行将在2018年底前完成。而零壹空间总裁马超则表示OS-X计划将在今年再进行三次发射。