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China's Long March-8A takes off for its maiden flight from Wenchang Space Launch Site in Southern China's Hainan Province on February 11, 2025. Photo: VCG

On Tuesday, after a thunderous roar blasting over the blue seas of Wenchang, South China's Hainan Province, China's new launch vehicle Long March-8A successfully sent a group of low earth orbit (LEO) satellites, needed for forming a satellite internet constellation in space, to their preset orbits.

It was a strong start for the nation's commercial spaceflight effort in the new year, and marked the transition from experimental exploration of China's commercial aerospace launch to a new phase that is characterized by high-frequency launches and increasingly diversified space services.

And, on Wednesday, the 2nd Beijing Commercial Space High-quality Development Conference was held in the Economic-Technological Development Area (Beijing E-Town) in Yizhuang, which brought multiple space-related enterprises, with visible enthusiasm of all the participants at the venue.

Home for over 160 aerospace companies, Beijing E-Town plans to conduct over 40 space launches, sending some 130 satellites into the space this year, said an official from Beijing E-Town, who noted that the conference would lay a solid foundation for the high-quality development of Beijing's commercial aerospace sector.

International cooperation

At around 10 am on Wednesday, as the satellites of GalaxySpace's "Little Spider Web" experimental constellation passed over Yizhuang's Tongming Lake Convention Center where the conference was being held, on-site staff used ordinary smartphones to connect to the satellites via terminal equipment installed on the roof-top of the venue, and the satellites connected with the ground staff working at the Beijing "Rocket Street" project and in Thailand too. 

This demonstration drew loud applauses from the audience at the meeting, a vivid display of Beijing city's commercial aerospace endeavors in the past years.  

Lately, Beijing-based satellite internet solution provider and private satellite maker GalaxySpace and Thailand's major telecom operator True Corporation, inked a deal to carry out in-depth cooperation in LEO satellite communication technology, and space-to-ground integrated network solutions to jointly promote the research and development (R&D) and verification of satellite-based communication innovations.

This cooperation marks a significant step for China's commercial space industry's global expansion as a new quality productive force to propel the construction of a space information corridor under the Belt and Road Initiative, which also underlines the progress of China-Thailand digital-economy cooperation and partnership, according to a statement sent to the Global Times from the company. 

Meanwhile, another Chinese private aerospace company Galactic Energy signed cooperation agreements respectively with Germany's FEM-Composites and Malaysia's Distant Blue Aerospace, marking the start of deep collaboration between Galactic Energy and overseas companies to jointly explore new frontiers in space.

FEM-Composites, a German aerospace player in high-performance materials research, plans to expand its commercial space business in Africa, while Distant Blue, founded in Malaysia by entrepreneurs from China, Malaysia, Singapore, and other countries, is dedicated to building a complete commercial space industry chain. Both companies have designated Galactic Energy as their primary partner.

Representative from the Galactic Energy told the Global Times that establishing strategic partnerships with the two international companies demonstrates the high level of recognition for China's commercial space technology and service capabilities.

Higher growth momentum

To further ramp up the commercial aerospace sector's high-quality development, multiple key laboratories in Beijing tasked with researching and developing the world's most innovative and disruptive technologies in the aerospace sector - were revealed during the conference in Beijing.

A key laboratory for reusable liquid oxygen methane launch vehicle system, which is jointly worked out by Chinese private space firm LandSpace and the renowned Tsinghua University, is expected to build a leading innovation and application platform for reusable liquid oxygen methane-propelled rockets, said a LandSpace statement.

LandSpace is expected to achieve verification of return technology from orbit in 2025, verification of reuse technology of rocket's propeller stage in 2026, and verification of vertical return and reuse technology of a rocket at its propeller stage in 2027, per the statement. 

Beijing is one of the major Chinese cities with the most comprehensive commercial space industry chain and the most vibrant space-related industrial development in China, which also drives innovation and application of commercial aerospace sector across the country, Wang Peng, an associate research fellow at the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times.

Currently, the country has over 500 commercial aerospace companies, including 49 launch vehicle companies, 141 satellite manufacturing companies, 178 satellite operating companies, and 154 satellite application companies, according to the Economic Daily.

Starting the construction in July 2022, the Hainan commercial spacecraft launch site has been kept busy. Domestic space companies such as i-Space, Galactic Energy, LandSpace, Space Pioneer and CAS Space, have either established facilities in the site or plan to do so, the Xinhua News Agency has reported. 

And, on November 20, 2023, Shanghai released a plan stating that the city is aiming to foster a complete industrial chain for commercial rocket production, with an annual production target of 50 commercial rockets and 600 commercial satellites in 2025. 

On December 27, 2023, the G60 satellite internet industry base in Shanghai's Songjiang district announced the launch of the G60 Satellite Digital Factory. Unlike the traditional process, which takes 2-3 months to assemble a satellite, the G60 plant can produce up to 300 satellites every year, with the fastest production time of one satellite per day. By 2026, the factory is expected to reach an annual output of 500-600 satellites, Xinhua reported.