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Hello and welcome to another episode of the Dongfang Hour China Aero/Space News Roundup! Without further ado, the news update from the week of 11 - 17 January.

1) iSpace Announces Plans for an IPO on the Star Board
iSpace announced plans to IPO on China’s STAR Board, or 科创板. The STAR Board is a Shanghai-based stock market focusing on early-stage, oftentimes higher-risk companies. China’s main stock indices in Shanghai and Shenzhen, as well as other indices in Beijing, have rather stringent regulations for metrics such as profitability, which makes it hard for early-stage companies to list. The Chinese government has progressively become more open to early-stage companies taking more risk with larger amounts of money, and created the STAR Board to allow earlier-stage, oftentimes not profitable, or not revenue-generating companies to list. Other space companies have listed on the STAR Board, including PIEsat. The press release from the STAR Board News only specifies that CITIC Securities and Tianfeng Securities will advise the listing, and does not offer any additional information.

2) Several updates on CASC making progress on propulsion technology
CASC’s Academy of Aerospace Liquid Propulsion Technology (AALPT), completed a 500s hot fire test of the YF-77 heavy thrust hydrolox engines, used notably on the Long March 5. This was the 4th 500s test, in a series to study and improve the reliability of the engine. 500s is about 4 times the length the engine would normally run during an actual launch, before engine cut-off. It is worth noting that this is in the context of a critical year for Long March 5(B), which will launch the 3 modules of the Chinese space station in the coming months.
China has also been making progress with its next-generation, a 220t thrust liquid-fueled hydrolox engine. This massive engine would power the second stage of China’s future super-heavy rocket, the Long March 9. Compared to the current Chinese state-of-the-art hydrolox engine, the YF-77 which powers the Long March 5, the new generation Chinese engine has approx. 3 to 4 times the amount of thrust.
The largest Chinese solid engine was fired on December 30, in Xi’an. During the 130-second firing test, the engine reached a peak of 260t of thrust. The engine is developed by AASPT (CASC’s Academy of Aerospace Solid Propulsion Technology), also known as the 4th Academy, and based in Xi’an. The current engine breaks multiple records: largest thrust, diameter, and ignition time (in China).

3) US adds 9 Chinese companies to a blacklist, including COMAC and Air China Group
The US added on Jan. 15 a list of 9 Chinese companies to a DoD blacklist, which lists companies which have ties with the Chinese military. These include Chinese aircraft manufacturer COMAC, which carries China’s commercial aircraft projects such as the C919; as well as Air China Group (CNAH), the parent company of Air China, and also, interestingly, one of China’s leading consumer tech companies Xiaomi. This blacklist “merely” bans American individuals and companies from investing in the blacklisted companies, but does not have an impact on export of goods. Consequently, the impact on COMAC and Air China will be limited, as they remain to a very large extent Chinese state-owned companies. This is much less the case for Xiaomi, which is listed in the US and in Hong-Kong (and which stocks plunged after the announcement). US investors will have to divest in listed companies before November 11 2021.

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