hongyun

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 26 April - 2 May.

1) Chinese Space Station: launch of the core Module Tianhe on-board Launch March 5B

On April 29 2021, China successfully sent the first module of the Chinese Space Station into orbit. The module was a 22.5-ton core module called Tianhe (天和, or “heavenly peace”). It was launched aboard a Long March 5B.

Tianhe is rightfully named the core module: it will be the centerpiece of the station which will host living quarters for the taikonauts, a bathroom, a kitchen, it will also be the main control unit (attitude, trajectory control), handles the fuel, power and air management systems. It is designed to host 3 taikonauts, and can hold up to 6 taikonauts during rotations. The Tianhe module will be joined next year by the Mengtian and Wentian experimental modules.
In 2024, the Chinese space station will also be joined by a space telescope called Xuntian, which will not be physically connected to the station but will evolve in the vicinity, and docking only for maintenance purposes.

2) Creation of a New Space SoE China SatNet

Major news update on Thursday 29 April which first came in the form of a press release from SASAC. The press release announced the creation of a China Satellite Networks Group Company, potentially SatNet for short, and puts that company under the direct administration of SASAC. SatNet is tasked with deploying and operating China’s LEO broadband constellation, widely speculated to be GuoWang. 

The creation of a SatNet company at this level of the SOE hierarchy is hugely significant. SatNet is, at least in theory, at the same level in the hierarchy as CASC, CASIC, and the big 3 telcos (all of which are also directly controlled by SASAC). If we compare this to the previous arrangement, you had China’s biggest broadband project being done by CASC (Hongyan), and another by CASIC (Hongyun), with both projects involving subsidiary companies with multiple shareholders (for example, Hongyan’s operating company, MacroNet, has shareholders including CASC, China Telecom, and CETC). This would have meant, presumably, that projects like Hongyan would have mostly used the technology of CASC, Hongyun would have used technology for CASIC, and the innovation and competition would have occurred in the long-term, after we find out how these constellations work.  On the other hand, the current situation with SatNet being at the same level as CASC, CASIC, the telcos, etc., means that it should, at least in theory, have a lot more freedom of choice in its sourcing options. 

3) Long March 6 launches a Batch of 9 Smallsats into Orbit, many payloads of interest

On April 27th, China launched an impressive launch share mission on-board a Long March 6, putting 9 satellites into orbit. These satellites were:

1. Qilu-1 and Qilu-4. Qilu-1 is a SAR satellite. Qilu-4 on the other hand is a high-resolution panchromatic EO satellite .
2. Foshan-1 is a high res panchromatic EO satellite meant to be a technology verification platform of the Foshan-based Jihua Laboratory.
3. Zhong’an Guotong-1 satellite (also called Hangsheng-1)
4. Guodian Gaoke’s Tianqi-9 IoT satellite, developed by ASES Space.
5. Origin Space’s NEO-1: a technology verification satellite, meant to trial the capture of a small celestial body and various orbital maneuvers.
6. Golden Bauhinia-1-01 and -02 are two remote sensing satellites.
7. Taijing-2 satellite, manufactued by Minospace, will be used primarily for remote sensing, and is the third satellite launched to be based on the MN-50 platform. 

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Welcome to another episode of the Dongfang Hour China Aero/Space News Roundup! This week we bring you updates on Galactic Energy, China’s maritime satcom industry and the product offerings therein, and China’s role in the regional EO market.

1) Galactic Energy completed a RMB 200 million Series A funding round in September, a round that was announced last week. This is the company’s first round in ~11 months, having raised RMB 150M in Oct 2019. The company has now raised ~RMB 500 million across 4 rounds, a feat made even more remarkable by the fact that they were founded just under 3 years ago. Funding will go towards accelerating the development of the company’s Pallas-1 and Ceres-1 rockets. Galactic Energy is now quite likely one of the top 4 commercial launch companies in China, along with Landspace, iSpace, and Expace.

This status in the “Big Four’ of China’s commercial launch sector was enhanced just a couple of days ago, when on November 7th 2020, Galactic Energy held the inaugural launch of its solid rocket the Ceres-1, becoming the 2nd private company in China to put a satellite into orbit after iSpace. Ceres-1, much like iSpace’s Hyperbola-1, is a small rocket with a capacity of 350 kg into LEO. While similar in propulsion technology, there are some definite slight differences between the two rockets (separation method, attitude control). Galactic Energy’s inaugural launch on the 7th was also noteworthy in that it was commercial, with the Ceres-1 rocket launching the Tianqi-11 satellite for Guodian Gaoke, a satellite manufacturer that plans to launch and operate the Tianqi constellation. 

2) In the maritime space, we saw announced this week that the CASIC 2nd Academy, in partnership with the China Unicom Research Institute and the government of Zhoushan City, Zhejiang Province, completed China’s first “Low Orbit Broadband Satellite + 5G Maritime” test. While the article, which was originally published by the CASIC 2nd academy, does not explicitly mention Hongyun, the phrasing of LEO broadband satellite would almost certainly imply that the tests were using the Hongyun test satellite, launched in late 2018.
Separately, as part of China’s 11/11 “Singles Day”, a huge online shopping day, we saw SinoSat release its 11/11 promotions for its Haixingtong maritime satcom service, which included 200MB of free data upon signing up, RMB 800 per year for unlimited voice. SinoSat is a ChinaSat subsidiary with focus on several high-value verticals with global requirements, i.e. maritime satcom, and has been building out a maritime satcom service for several years using satellite capacity from ChinaSat among others.

3) Finally, the Asia-Oceania Group on Earth Observations (AO GEO) held a meeting in Changzhou early in the week. The event was attended by 15 countries and several international organizations. “China is playing an important role in the Asia-Oceania region, with the second highest number of remote sensing satellites in the world and its application of Earth observation shifting from experimental use to business services”, said Wang Qi’an, the director of the National Remote Sensing Center of China

This has been another episode of the Dongfang Hour China Aero/Space News Roundup. If you’ve made it this far, we thank you for your kind attention, and look forward to seeing you next time! 

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Hi there! This week, Dongfang Hour brings you a focus on the 6th Annual China Commercial Aerospace Forum (CCAF), held last week in Wuhan and hosted by CASIC. 
This week we discuss updates on CASIC's projects, and next week we will summarize other commercial space announcements.

1) Context of CCAF/CASIC/Wuhan

The Chinese space industry is commercializing, and CASIC is playing a role in this process. In CASIC’s quest to commercialize space, the company has enrolled the Hubei Government as an ally, with the province (and its capital, Wuhan), playing host to CASIC’s Wuhan Aerospace Industrial Base (WAIB), a multi-billion USD initiative that includes manufacturing facilities for rockets and satellites. Each year at the CCAF, CASIC provides updates on these projects.

2) Update on CASIC’s constellations
Xingyun is being developed by CASIC's subsidiary, LEOBit Technologies. The project is based in Wuhan, and aims to build a constellation to connect CASIC’s burgeoning industrial IoT infrastructure. 

During the forum, LEOBit's Deputy GM Mr. DU Li presented a useful reminder of Xingyun’s timeline. It will be deployed in 3 steps: alpha (test phase) - beta (partial deployment, 12 satellites) - gamma (global coverage, 80 satellites), in respectively 2020, 2021, and 2023.

Other points of interest from LEOBit's keynote included:

• Very significant development of terminals for different applications.
• Images from LEOBit of their facilities.
• The emphasis on applications also partly explains the slow development on the space segment side.
• We also learned that within the 14th Five-Year Plan (i.e. by 2025), Xingyun hopes to have roughly 200 satellites in orbit.

Hongyun vice GM Mr. Wang Chong provided an update on the broadband constellation. Most interesting was the emphasis on the concept of “通导遥一体化”, or the integration of comms, satnav, and EO. Wang also showed information from a battery of tests conducted using the Hongyun satellite. Interestingly, while there has been increased speculation within China about consolidation among the state-owned constellations, there was no mention of larger constellations (like the recently-leaked GW).

3) Updates on CASIC’s launchers

Expace reiterated plans for production of ~50 rockets per year at WAIB by an undefined timeline. The company mentioned several times in an interview the phrase “批量化”, “batch production”, which is distinct from mass production  (大批量话), noting that Expace has achieved 批量化 in many of their processes. To now, Expace has been one of the more successful “commercial” launch companies in China.

4) Other News

China and Ukraine Deal

China and Ukraine sign a long-term cooperation agreement for space, encompassing 69 projects totaling >$70M over the period of 2021-2025. The projects include a joint space research laboratory and stronger information exchanges between the two countries. 

CGWIC BRI Satcom Report

Earlier this week, CGWIC released a report (borrowing from Euroconsult data with proper and very kind citation) about opportunities for communications satellites in Belt and Road regions. An interesting report for those interested in learning more about BRI satcom opportunities.