VS-1

JS-1, or Jīngliàn shíyóu-1 is a rocket fuel type recently utilized in advanced Chinese rocketry to replace the highly volatile mix used before. JS-1 is simaler in principle to its real-life counterpart RP-1 in that it's a super refined mix of kerosene to provide rockets with enough thrust to reach orbit. It's a cheaper alternative to Liquid Hydrogen which has entered the research phase to build a basic idea on its effecincy for use in rockets.

Usage
As with its real-life counterpart RP-1, JS-1 is a super refined kerosene mix with as much water and impurities removed as possible. Both of which were heavily blamed for the instability of China's previous alchohal fuel mixes used on the prototype Type-1 rockets and the early generation Type-2 rockets used to launch OARP.

The fuel is commonly burned with LOX (Liquid Oxygen) as an oxidizer. Compared to the previous gen fuels JS-1 is far more stable and can handel the extreme pressures demanded within the rocket as well as being stored in smaller fuel tanks without fear of the engine back-firing and incinerating the engine and the instruments.

JS-1 can also serve a secondary use as a coolant in the rocket engine and is pumped over the engine and fuel tank before being mixed with the LOX to keep engine conditions optimal.

Pre-JS-1
Prior to the use of JS-1 engineers on the OARP project referred to their rockets as "massive fuel bombs" due to the likelihood of the alchohal or crude hydro-carbon mix used in them. Only under very specefic and difficult to control factors may this fuel be used. Even though command denies it - as part of Chinese military code - the engineers under them still claim it waslucky that both OARP 1 and OARP 2 were launched.

Several model experiments were had to try and tame the early mix with little success. During the years following the first OARP launch several technicians and engineers that handeled the fuel of the rockets discussed potential fuel alternatives. These groups were the ones that originally suggested fractionalizing a more refined kerosene mixed and suggested that liquid hydrogen could work as an alternative.

Hopes for a post JS-1 Era
Although JS-1 works it is far from perfect. The molecules themselves are far too large to be truely efficent in rocket engines and can be subject to decay. If barrels of fuel are left to sit too long they've been known to gum up and become a problem and toxic hazard. As such it's becomming generally common to order JS-1 as its needed.

A replacement fuel is being sought after for at least the launching of higher-priority equipment. Academic research is beging had to look into alternatives such as Liquid Hydrogen.