China has taken a significant leap in its commercial space ambitions with the launch of the Dongfang Hengyuan, the nation's first highend marine engineering vessel tailor-made for the entire life cycle of maritime rocket launches.

Launched on March 11 at Huanghai Shipbuilding in Weihai, Shandong province, the vessel acts as a motionless mobile command center. It is designed to solve the complex logistical and meteorological challenges of launching satellites from the open sea — a key pillar of China's national strategy to expand its commercial space capabilities.

While traditional research vessels are repurposed for space support, the Dongfang Hengyuan was designed and built by Harbin Engineering University to serve as a specialized command and measurement hub.

The ship measures 77 meters long, 17.8 meters wide and 7.6 meters deep, with a design draft of four meters in water and a displacement of 3,200 metric tons.

Zhang Guochang, a researcher at the university's Yantai Research Institute and chief engineer of the Dongfang Hengyuan, said the vessel uses an all-electric propulsion system and has a cruising speed of 15 knots.

A dynamic positioning system on board provides a motionless mobile command center at sea for launch command and scientific observation, he said.

While its primary function will be to facilitate open-sea space launches, the vessel can also act as a floating laboratory and classroom, according to Zhang.

The ship is scheduled to be delivered in June, when it will work in conjunction with the Oriental Spaceport launch vessel, significantly enhancing the support capacity of China's maritime launch system. It will also collaborate with the Dongfang Hengjing maritime test platform to conduct marine scientific research activities, said Zhang.

In May 2024, Harbin Engineering University successfully led a bid for the hydrological detection platform project, which includes Dongfang Hengyuan and Dongfang Hengjing. The project aims to achieve comprehensive marine meteorological scientific surveys, focusing on typical sea conditions such as wind, waves and currents crucial for maritime space launch and recovery.

The project includes surveys of typical meteorological elements such as surface and high-altitude winds, visibility, cloud cover, temperature, humidity, pressure, weather phenomena and electromagnetic environment, along with marine geology, seabed topography and hydrology.

Yao Chong, deputy director of the university's Yantai Research Institute and vice-chief commander of Dongfang Hengyuan, said that despite complex technical challenges, large workloads and tight schedules, the university has placed great importance and is confident it will be successful.

"The project is advancing via a dual-line approach from the chief commander and chief engineer. Through careful organizing and planning, improving management systems, strengthening schedule coordination and communication, the project team has successfully overcome multiple technical challenges in close collaboration with consortium units," Yao said.

Delivery of the maritime test platform in November and the launch of the Dongfang Hengyuan have laid a solid foundation for the project's final completion, he added.

"The successful advancement of the hydrological detection platform project can be attributed to the university's decades of solid research accumulation in the field of ship and ocean engineering," Yao said.

A series of research and development achievements, including the DP2 dynamic positioning system, ultra-short baseline underwater positioning system, fiber optic gyrocompass and real-time vibration and noise monitoring, have been applied on the Dongfang Hengyuan, transforming the university's research results into practical applications, he added.

Investment for the vessel came from Shandong Maritime Commercial Aerospace Launch Services of Dongfang Aerospace Port (Shandong) Development Group, and it was co-built with the Shanghai Merchant Ship Design and Research Institute, Hunan Guotian Technology, and Huanghai Shipbuilding.

Contact the writers at zhouhuiying@chinadaily.com.cn