Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, April 24. On April 24, Xinhua Daily Telegraph published a report titled "New Space Infrastructure: China's Commercial Space Speedup".

　　April 24 is the tenth "China Space Day". China's commercial aerospace industry is ushering in the dual turning point of "technical breakthrough" and "scale explosion", and the space economy is moving from vision to reality.

　　Commercial aerospace generally refers to an industry that provides aerospace products and services in a market-oriented manner, covering rocket launches, satellite applications, space tourism and other fields.

　　Entering 2025, a number of new commercial rockets such as Zhuque 3, Tianlong 3, Gravity 2, Hyperbola 3, and Zhishenxing 1 will be launched as planned; the Chinese version of "Star Link" plans to continue to launch the Qianfan Constellation, GW Constellation, etc.; Hainan Commercial Space Launch Site enters the normal launch stage and builds the second phase of the project...

　　Rockets, satellites and launch sites are the "three major items" of the commercial aerospace industry. With the first commercial aerospace launch site in China put into use, China's commercial aerospace sector has completed the last piece of the puzzle.

　　The once "cold" aerospace technology is now leveraging commercial power to enter thousands of households and industries, and continuously expanding its application scenarios.

　　The Long March 8 Yao-6 launch vehicle merged with the Hainan Commercial Space Launch Station No. 1 launch station. (Photo provided by Hainan Commercial Distribution)
(I) The "singularity" of commercial aerospace outbreak is coming
　　In the past year, the US SpaceX starship rocket has once again tested, China's Blue Arrow Space Suzaku III completed a 10-kilometer-level vertical take-off and landing return flight test, and European startups are competing to launch a reusable rocket plan...

　　The global commercial aerospace industry is growing rapidly and becoming a new focus of competition among major powers.

　　China is a rapidly rising "new star". In 2025, my country has plans to fly a number of recyclable rockets for the first time; in terms of satellites, giant constellations such as Qianfan Constellation and GW Constellation continue to be launched, and demand for small satellites has increased explosively. It is estimated that the size of China's commercial aerospace market will exceed 2.5 trillion yuan this year.

　　The representative year, known in the industry as the "first year of commercial aerospace in China", needs to be pushed forward 10 years.

　　In 2015, the "National Medium- and Long-term Development Plan for Civil Space Infrastructure (2015-2025)" was issued, proposing for the first time to encourage social capital to enter the aerospace field.

　　Since then, private commercial aerospace companies such as Blue Arrow Aerospace have been established one after another, and a group of entrepreneurs have flocked to this emerging field. The "Jilin-1" satellite group developed by Changguang Satellite was successfully launched, setting a precedent for the application of commercial satellites in my country.

　　In 2024, China's commercial aerospace industry ushered in an "singularity" of explosion.

　　Commercial aerospace was written into the government work report of that year as a "new growth engine" for the first time. Beijing, Shanghai and other places successively issued special support policies and action plans to increase the layout of the commercial aerospace industry. For a time, hundreds of billions of social capital poured in.

　　In Yizhuang, south of Beijing, there are more than 160 aerospace enterprises gathered, and the number of commercial rocket complete aircraft development companies accounts for 75% of the country; and in Haidian District, north of the city, there are many commercial satellite manufacturing, measurement, operation and operation companies. This two areas in the south and north have gathered more than 200 key enterprises, and core R&D units account for more than half of the country.

　　Beijing Economic and Technological Development Zone has built a common scientific research and production base for commercial aerospace "Beijing Rocket Street" and established a reusable rocket technology innovation center. Zhongguancun also established a Commercial Aerospace Alliance, and has arranged more than 4 billion yuan in investment in commercial aerospace in the past two years.

　　Policy is like a catalyst, activates the chain reaction of commercial forces towards the "Sea of ​​Stars".

　　In September of that year, Zhuque III completed a 10-kilometer vertical take-off and landing return flight test at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. This rocket powered by liquid oxygen methane is known as the "green benchmark" of commercial rockets.

　　In the same year, the "Yunyao Meteorological Constellation" satellites were launched one after another, and are planned to complete the networking by the end of 2026, and will form a global high-resolution, high-precision, and full-scale atmospheric and ionosphere detection system.

　　As of now, the number of commercial aerospace companies in China has increased rapidly to more than 500, and the number of satellites in orbit has continued to rise.

　　A series of technological breakthroughs are another great thrust for the rise of commercial aerospace.

　　The Oriental Space "Gratio 2" liquid recyclable rocket will be launched, which can increase the capacity of 500 kilometers of solar synchronous orbit to 15 to 20 tons;

　　The PIE-Engine Tianquan model independently developed by Aerospace Hongtu realizes intelligent interpretation, intelligent enhancement and three-dimensional reconstruction of remote sensing images;

　　Many commercial rocket companies such as Xinghe Power and Blue Arrow Aerospace have greatly improved the production efficiency and stability of engine components through 3D printing technology.

　　The report "Ideas and Paths for Commercial Aerospace Development in the 15th Five-Year Plan" released by the CADI Research Institute not long ago believes that China's entire commercial aerospace industry chain has achieved rapid development and is expected to usher in a mature period at the end of the 15th Five-Year Plan or the 16th Five-Year Plan period.

　　"In the next three years, China's commercial aerospace will usher in a highlight moment. Recyclable rocket technology is mature, and the transportation cost is reduced to less than 30,000 yuan per kilogram." Zhang Changwu, founder and CEO of Blue Arrow Aerospace, made a prediction. This company is the first private launch vehicle company in China to obtain all access qualifications, and achieved its first private launch vehicle launch in 2018.

　　A large number of new application scenarios are emerging at an accelerated pace:

　　At the Beijing Commercial Aerospace High-quality Development Conference held in February this year, Wang Qiaochu, an employee of Beijing Yizhuang Xingjian Company, connected the mobile phone to the Galaxy Aerospace Low-orbit Internet satellite that is transiting over the sky, and sent the scene of the Beijing Rocket Street project construction to the large screen in real time.

　　Is there a bad signal in the mountains? As a large number of satellites are manufactured quickly, batch and at low cost and launched and launched, the "low-orbit satellite constellations" are gradually networked as planned, and the Internet communication needs of people in underdeveloped communications in mountainous areas will be met.

　　During the spring plowing season, Anhui farmer Zhang Donglin learned the new style of "satellite farming" - sitting at home and turning on your phone, you can see changes in soil moisture data. Commercial SAR satellites use colored thermal maps to visually display the water distribution in the fields. According to the data provided by the satellite, Lao Zhang remotely controls intelligent sprinkler equipment to allow water-deficient areas to "replenish water accurately" them.

　　Weather forecasts are also inseparable from commercial satellites. Yunyao Meteorological Constellation can provide about 15,000 star-occurring constellation products to the China Meteorological Administration every day, and conduct timely numerical forecasts and global typhoon monitoring.

　　The "Luojia-1" scientific experimental satellite focusing on luminous remote sensing is like the "eye of the night sky", drawing a "night economy heat map" for users.

　　...

　　Rich application scenarios have also promoted the acceleration of commercial aerospace to new development:

　　Yang Shaoxian, chief researcher of commercial aerospace at CIDI Research Institute, said that the era of new space infrastructure has begun, and new business forms such as "aerospace +" are in full swing. Space tourism and commercial lunar exploration are expected to achieve policy breakthroughs and move towards experimental verification or early stages of commercial operations within 5 to 10 years.

　　From the perspective of regional development, commercial rockets, as a means to develop new quality productivity, have become a new growth pole for some local economics. In addition to "Beijing Rocket Street", in Bengbu, Anhui, companies such as Deep Blue Aerospace, Jiuzhou Cloud Arrow, and Lingkong Power have successively settled, striving to form a commercial aerospace production and manufacturing base with important influence in the Yangtze River Delta region by 2035; in Haiyang, Shandong, with the maritime launch home port and rocket assembly manufacturing as the leading pull, gradually attracting the agglomeration and development of related industries and creating a commercial aerospace industry ecosystem.

　　Ordinary people may not be far from getting close to space.

(II) The era of commercial rocket recycling begins

　　In April 1990, China launched foreign satellites for the first time and entered the international commercial satellite launch market. At that time, the launch vehicle was mainly the "national team" Long March family. More than 30 years later, China's commercial rockets ushered in a "golden age" in the market.

　　The "fast response" and "low cost" commercial rockets are the "new forces" of small and medium-sized satellite launches today.

　　At around 19:00 on March 21, at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Gansu, the Ceres One carrier rocket developed by Xinghe Power was launched, sending six satellites from the Yunyao meteorological constellation into the sun-synchronous orbit.

　　So far, Ceres One has successfully completed 18 launches and sent 77 satellites into predetermined orbits. It is the commercial launch vehicle with the most launches, the most launches, and the highest success rate in China's private aerospace field.

　　"This flight mission further verifies the stability and reliability of the carrier platform of commercial rockets." Liu Baiqi, founder and CEO of Xinghe Power, said that the characteristic of the Ceres One launch vehicle is "small and fast spirit". Its miniaturization design not only reduces costs, but also improves adaptability, which can meet the small-scale needs of more and more private enterprises or scientific research institutions.

　　In addition to Ceres One, the gravity-1 carrier rocket in Oriental Space was successfully launched in the offshore waters of Haiyang, Shandong in January last year, breaking the global solid rocket capacity record at that time. As the world's first all-solid bundled medium-sized launch vehicle, Gravity One can support the launch of a 100-kilogram satellite "30 stars in one arrow".

　　However, representatives of the commercial rocket launch market such as Liu Baiqi are not satisfied with this. The reusable rocket Zhishen One developed by Xinghe Power will make its first flight in June. Zhishenxing One can be reused about 30 times, and transportation costs will be significantly reduced.

　　If solid rockets are "light cavalry" in the commercial aerospace field, liquid recyclable rockets are "aircraft carriers" that support the space economy. With its advantages of large thrust, it breaks through the load limit and reduces costs through recycling and reuse. It is the core engine that kicks off the aerospace industry's scale era.

　　According to Zhang Changwu's team's calculations, through recycling design, the rocket engine can reduce the single launch cost from "billion yuan level" to "million yuan level", which is 70% lower than traditional one-time rockets, making the low-orbit satellite "one arrow and a hundred stars" networking and the "batch launch" of deep space probes an economically feasible commercial solution.

　　Due to the need to be recycled on the ground, the technical challenges of this rocket are greater, and can be called the "precision ballet" of aerospace engineering - through engine secondary ignition, high-precision attitude control and other technologies, the arrow bodies dozens of meters high landed smoothly like "space helicopters".

　　"The rocket needs to withstand high temperature ablation of 2000℃ when it returns to the atmosphere, rely on the engine's secondary ignition to achieve 'reverse thrust deceleration', and complete a vertical soft landing through high-precision navigation control." Ji Feng, chairman of Anhui Jiuzhou Yunjian Aerospace Technology Co., Ltd., said that the key to whether it can be recycled is the rocket engine, and it is necessary to break through the engine's deep thrust adjustment technology and engine multiple start technology. At present, the company's "Longyun" engine research and development has overcome core technologies such as startup, thermal protection materials, and arrow posture control.

　　Chinese commercial rocket companies are taking new liquid rocket engines as a breakthrough point to promote my country to become one of the few countries in the world that masters full-process recycling technology.

　　In 2024, Blue Arrow Space completed a rocket vertical take-off and landing recovery verification test at a height of 350 meters and 10 kilometers, which is a milestone in the development of reusable rocket engineering. Their Zhuque III is expected to complete its first flight in the second half of the year. Many commercial aerospace companies such as Interstellar Glory and Deep Blue Aerospace have also completed vertical take-off and landing tests of rocket engines.

　　"The gradual breakthrough of liquid rocket recycling technology can be regarded as an industrial revolution in the field of commercial aerospace and is a subversion of the traditional one-time rocket launch model." In the view of Huo Liang, CEO of Deep Blue Aerospace, the core significance of this technology lies in transforming rockets from "consumables" to "durable tools" and providing low-cost "space logistics trunks" for Wanxing networking and deep space exploration missions.

(III) "Satellite-making on assembly line"

　　On February 22, the China Star 10R satellite was successfully launched at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center, which will provide efficient satellite network transmission services for countries jointly building the "Belt and Road".

　　On March 12, the Long March 8 Yao-6 carrier rocket sent the fifth batch of networking satellites of the "Ten Thousand Stars" Qianfan Constellation into a predetermined orbit through the "One Arrow and Eighteen Stars" method to create a space network with the Internet of Things.

　　On April 15, the 4D Gaojing 3 01 star entered orbit and will show its strengths in emerging markets such as digital agriculture, urban information models, and real-life three-dimensional.

　　...

　　Since the beginning of the year, new trends in commercial satellites have been reported every month, showing that China's commercial satellites have reached a new level of high-density orbit.

　　From the state's proposal to support the development of commercial satellites in 2015, to the inclusion of satellite Internet into new infrastructure in 2020, to the accelerated implementation of commercial satellite industries in various places since last year, private satellite enterprises have set off a wave of innovation, and new technologies to promote the rapid entry of commercial satellites into orbit are emerging one after another.

　　Technological breakthroughs are not the only way for commercial aerospace to develop. Whether a company can make profits and win market space is more critical. With the construction of low-orbit satellite Internet, some domestic commercial satellite companies have embarked on the road of batching and low-cost, and "assembly-based satellite making" has entered reality.

　　The reporter recently walked into the assembly hall of Galaxy Aerospace Nantong Satellite Smart Factory located in Jiangsu Province. The assembly work is underway for the production line full of technology. Two of the satellite Internet technology test satellites successfully launched on April 1 were made here.

　　In the whole-star assembly test area, flexible assembly robots are undergoing efficient automatic assembly work. Manufacturing engineers have innovatively developed robot flexible force control assembly system based on traditional industrial robots. At the same time, combined with the assembly process flow, an automatic and flexible docking algorithm was developed, realizing the integration of human-machine collaboration and automatic assembly, and the assembly time was shortened by 70%.

　　With cutting-edge technologies such as assembly robots, smart devices and digital manufacturing systems, the factory has created a complete manufacturing chain of 100 to 2,000 kg satellites. According to Zhang Bo, an intelligent manufacturing R&D engineer at the factory, the production line can meet the development capabilities of 100 to 150 medium-sized satellites per year. The development cycle of the whole satellite is shortened, and the efficiency is increased by 80%, making batch "star-making" a reality.

　　This is not an isolated case. The Geely Satellite Super Factory in Taizhou, Zhejiang uses an intelligent network system to coordinate the design, R&D, production, testing and operation. After more than 60 assembly processes, it is assembled into a whole satellite, shortening the satellite manufacturing cycle to 28 days, increasing the mass production speed by 10 times, and significantly reducing production costs.

　　"In the field of satellite manufacturing, the advantages of low-cost and mass production of commercial aerospace companies are further highlighted. The development of satellites is changing from a small number of customized models to a large-scale production model. Being able to produce satellites like a computer has become a reality." said Zhang Shijie, chief scientist of Galaxy Aerospace.

　　New technologies have made rapid progress, and the cost of satellite building has been reduced, making the application of technology in the sky convenient for thousands of households on the ground.

　　Jia Hongguang, deputy general manager of Changguang Satellite Technology Co., Ltd., said that from single-star experiments to constellation networking, from data collection to intelligent services, commercial satellites are achieving a commercial leap from "space infrastructure" to "ecological value".

　　The city has many transportation points, long lines and wide areas, and the road network is large in scale and complex in structure. Using satellite remote sensing and artificial intelligence technology, information such as the location and shape of the road network can be quickly and accurately extracted, bringing convenience to urban road network verification.

　　In the past, when surveying the planting area, people needed to measure and calculate step by step with their feet. By obtaining vegetation index images, satellites form data information based on the proportion of light reflected by the vegetation in different bands of light, thus reflecting the growth, yield, seedling rate, etc. of crops. The 200 square kilometers of farmland can obtain the whole-region image in just half an hour.

　　Remote sensing technology has the advantages of large width, high efficiency and low cost, making primary forest monitoring possible, greatly improving monitoring efficiency, reducing work pressure, and reducing work risks.

　　Through remote sensing archaeology, staff can raise their sights, see the overall picture of the site, and get a general overall picture.

　　Looking up at the starry sky, the 117 satellites of the "Jilin-1" constellation, while overlooking the earth, also record the growth and changes of crops in real time; the radar satellite of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Aerospace Map scans the coastline every 6 hours, and the accuracy of the prediction of typhoon paths can reach a hundred meters...

　　Whether it is aircraft, ships, remote mining areas, or unmanned areas, in the near future, it can be further integrated with the ground communication network through satellite Internet, and gradually form a three-dimensional communication network that integrates the world and develops in a integrated manner.

　　In the sky full of stars, business wisdom shines brightly.

(IV) The launch site achieves a breakthrough of 0

　　"The first launch is successful! Our own commercial space launch site!"

　　On November 30, 2024, along the southeast coast of Wenchang, Hainan, a raging flame ejected from the tail of the Long March 12 carrier rocket, rising from the ground at the Hainan Commercial Space Launch Center, soaring straight into the sky amidst cheers. People at the scene raised their mobile phones to record the moment when China's commercial space launch site broke through from 0 to 1.

　　In the view of many industry insiders, many commercial satellites and rocket companies in China have emerged like mushrooms after a rain in the past 10 years, but the infrastructure of commercial space launch sites has been lacked, so that some commercial rockets and satellites have "no place to use their energy".

　　If commercial rockets are compared to "aircraft" and commercial satellites are compared to "passengers", commercial space launch sites are "airports" for "passengers" to board and take off. As there are more and more "passengers" and "aircraft", it is imperative to build an "exclusive airport".

　　The successful success of the first mission of Hainan Commercial Space Launch Site is a milestone. Fan Ruixiang, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and an expert from China Aerospace Science and Technology Group, commented: "It has achieved a breakthrough from scratch in my country's commercial aerospace launch sites, made up for the gap in the commercial aerospace chain, and also provided strong launch support for large-scale low-orbit constellation networking missions, etc.."

　　Why Wenchang? The coast here has natural advantages such as low latitude, maritime transportation, and wide shooting range. Yang Tianliang, chairman of Hainan International Commercial Space Launch Co., Ltd., said that the construction of launch stations here has unique geographical advantages.

　　In fact, geographical conditions are not all.

　　The market-oriented mechanism of this youngest launch site in China makes it a unique existence. Compared with Jiuquan, Xichang, Taiyuan and Wenchang Aerospace Launch Station, Hainan Commercial Aerospace Launch Station is the first civilian aerospace launch site. Its mission organization and management operation adopts a flexible and efficient commercial mechanism, which can better gather social innovation forces.

　　For example, in the face of the parallel and cross-circulation procurement difficulties such as a large number of facilities and equipment, special fuels, managers have changed the traditional supporting supply guarantee model to market-oriented bidding procurement, which has improved procurement efficiency. "Our goal is to take a healthy development path that is both efficient and efficient," said Yang Tianliang.

　　This "breaker" is effectively combining the leadership of scientific and technological innovation with the flexibility of market mechanisms to meet the needs of commercial space launches.

　　"In the past, a model of rocket often performed launch missions by a fixed launch station, which had the advantages of relatively simple operation and high stability." Ge Lixin, director of the Engineering Equipment Department of Hainan International Commercial Aerospace Launch Co., Ltd., said that with more and more commercial rocket models in China, if "one rocket is one station", it will be difficult to meet the demand.

　　Their No. 2 workstation No. 2, which was performing the first mission of the launch site, innovatively adopted a "universal" interface design. The front and rear end equipment of the launch is not fixed, and can be replaced with "module" and "counter-port". 19 models of rockets, including the Long March 12 launch vehicle, can be used. This station can also adapt to rockets with different types of propellant, takeoff weight, and diameter length.

　　In terms of invisible system management, the launch site is also undergoing iterative updates.

　　The overall design department of the First Academy of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation is responsible for building the "smart brain" of Hainan commercial aerospace launch site. Xu Wenxiao, an expert in the overall design department of the institute, introduced that this system mainly includes five major systems such as communication system and meteorological system and 26 sub-systems, and has functions such as command and monitoring, digital twins, digital flight companion, health management, and comprehensive operation and maintenance, realizing information interconnection, integration and sharing, making the launch process efficient and intelligent.

　　With the advancement of the construction of Hainan Free Trade Port, Hainan Commercial Space Launch Site is leveraging the superposition effect of "home field advantages" and the policy advantages of the Free Trade Port. People believe that in the near future, Hainan's commercial space launch site will be like an airport, recyclable rockets "incessantly flowing".

　　The maritime launch site has also been favored by commercial rocket companies in recent years.

　　Bu Xiangwei, co-CEO of Oriental Space and chief designer of the Gravity Series launch vehicle, said that the sea launch field can flexibly choose the latitude. Compared with the "fixed" inland launch field, it can be moved to a suitable position for launch, thereby fully leveraging the inherent carrying capacity of the launch vehicle. As the technology continues to mature, the launch preparation time can be compressed to 72 hours, and a high-density launch of "two launches a week" can be achieved in the future. In addition, the rocket wreckage is also relatively safe to choose, and can directly fall into the high seas to avoid security risks in densely populated areas on land.

　　Located in Haiyang City, Yantai, Shandong Province, on the coast of the Yellow Sea, there is a new road called "Aerospace Avenue". At both ends of this road, one is the solid rocket assembly and testing base and the aerospace industrial park, and the other is the Haiyang Port that ensures the sea launch of my country's solid launch vehicles.

　　Some industry insiders analyzed that the maritime launch site not only marks that China's commercial aerospace is moving from the "land-based" era to a new field of "land-based" field, but is also building a cross-border ecosystem of "aerospace + ocean" and opening up a new space for the integration of the aerospace industry and the ocean economy.

　　Above the sky, the brilliant constellation composed of commercial satellites is a "cosmic love letter" written by the Chinese people with a thousand-year-old romantic dream of flying. This is the golden age of China's aerospace industry and a march for human exploration into the universe.

[Editor in charge: Chen Tingyu]