"south arrow and north star", beijing's space economy accelerates take-off
2024-09-29
한어Русский языкEnglishFrançaisIndonesianSanskrit日本語DeutschPortuguêsΕλληνικάespañolItalianoSuomalainenLatina
a document ten years ago accelerated the entry of chinese private capital into the aerospace field. since then, a number of commercial aerospace companies have sprung up, "running" into space to explore the mysterious universe. from the successful launch of the first private commercial launch vehicle, to the world's first liquid oxygen methane rocket entering orbit, to the first high-density flight delivery of private rockets... as the birthplace of my country's aerospace industry, beijing has become the national commercial aerospace industry chain. the city with the most comprehensive layout and the most dynamic industrial development. last year, my country's private commercial launch vehicle companies carried out a total of 13 commercial launches, all from beijing. driven by the "stars" and "arrows", commercial aerospace, listed as one of the new growth engines, is accelerating to take off.
“rocket block” reflects industrial growth
at 13:22 on august 29, red light suddenly appeared in the sea near shandong. ceres 1, the "star product" of china's commercial aerospace industry, took off into the sky, flying "with one arrow and five stars" from the sea to space.
this mission is the 15th flight of the ceres 1 launch vehicle. when the news of the successful launch came back to the beijing base camp, galaxy power's r&d and design team did not celebrate for too long and set off to jiuquan to prepare for the 16th launch.
the area near ronghua south road in the economic development zone where galaxy power is located is beijing's famous "rocket street". ten years ago, a group of r&d personnel with experience in the aerospace "national team" devoted themselves to entrepreneurship. private rocket companies such as blue arrow, galaxy power, and star glory that were established successively chose this street to settle down. "first, it was next to the rocket academy where we used to work, and second, yizhuang already had an industrial foundation at that time." xia dongkun, vice president of galaxy power, recalled.
after leaving the "national team", everyone quickly discovered that commercial aerospace is very different. the biggest feature is that what the company wants to do is completely determined by the market. at that time, a number of micro-satellite companies emerged in our country. these satellites are not heavy in weight, and their orbits, time windows, and application modes are also different from traditional satellites, making them more suitable for smaller rockets.
therefore, at the beginning of its establishment, galaxy power started the development of ceres 1. the diameter of the rocket is only 1.4 meters and the total length is about 20 meters. it is more flexible and lower cost. "rockets cannot survive solely on financing, but must meet market demand." xia dongkun explained that this requires continuous reduction of launch costs through the realization of "flight launches" to truly break through the business cycle.
in november 2020, ceres 1 was successfully launched for the first time, and subsequently, the launch density became higher and higher. "there will be one launch per year in 2020 and 2021, two launches in 2022, and seven launches in 2023. this year we expect to launch 10 times." xia dongkun said. ceres-1 has also achieved the first high-density "flight launch" of a chinese private rocket, and can launch once in as few as ten days.
projecting the vision to the entire "rocket block", among the eight types of commercial rockets successfully launched across the country, six are in yizhuang, where 75% of the country's commercial rocket companies are gathered. "in addition to rocket companies, yizhuang has also gathered a number of satellite, aerospace materials, aerospace electromechanical manufacturing and other companies, and the industrial ecology is basically complete." li ting, deputy director of the intelligent manufacturing bureau of the economic development zone, said that a number of satellite application companies are also accelerating their implementation. , focusing on communications, navigation, remote sensing and other fields, and continuously innovating in data, systems, terminals and other products and services.
technological innovation and exploration are endless
the starry sky is vast and exploration never ends. while the "flight launch" of ceres 1 continues to accelerate, the pallas 1 rocket, which can be reused 50 times, is also making its final sprint to space.
reusable rockets are the forefront of the development of the world's aerospace industry and international commercial aerospace competition. they can meet the high-growth, low-cost needs of domestic large-scale satellite internet constellation construction and space-to-ground transportation missions. "however, there are still technical bottlenecks that need to be broken through in the reusable engineering application of my country's commercial launch vehicles. after mastering this technology, the comprehensive cost of commercial aerospace will be significantly reduced." li ting explained.
to this end, beijing has made a technical layout for reusable rockets in yizhuang, and has clarified its future development direction in terms of satellite rocket development, key technology research, industrial space layout, policy pilot trials, and product demonstration applications.
with careful cultivation, reusable rockets are expected to usher in a "group army"-style breakthrough. last year, the zhuque-2 yao-2 rocket independently developed by blue arrow aerospace was successfully launched, becoming the world's first liquid oxygen methane rocket to enter orbit, which also symbolizes that the rocket is one step closer to reusability. "reusable rockets are a critical point for commercial aerospace. before this critical point occurs, the gap between us and the top international companies is widening. after the critical point, we have the conditions to narrow the gap." blue arrow aerospace ceo zhang changwu revealed, blue arrow will achieve recycling with commercial delivery capabilities in 2025 and be reusable in 2026.
in private rocket companies, every penny is spent in half. especially during the critical period of r&d, the demand for funds is growing rapidly. enterprises alone will inevitably affect the progress of technological breakthroughs. to this end, in january 2023, the economic development zone management committee invested in the establishment of a government investment guidance fund. the first project invested by the industrial upgrading equity investment fund was blue arrow aerospace, with an injection of 150 million yuan.
after 10 years, beijing’s commercial aerospace industry has also ushered in a higher level of layout. according to the relevant person in charge of the municipal economic and information bureau, the upgraded version of "rocket street" has begun construction in yizhuang, which will provide commercial aerospace companies with more than ten tests and shared manufacturing services such as statics, separation, modal, and 3d printing; haidian district it is also actively building the "star valley" industrial space brand, relying on the location advantages of china aerospace city, to build a new "satellite town" integrating r&d and manufacturing, forming a "one city, one town, multiple parks" layout. in terms of policy support, the municipal bureau of economy and information technology and other departments pioneered the commercial space launch insurance subsidy policy, which has supported dozens of projects and created a good policy environment for commercial space development.
"stars" shine and give rise to space economy
in the daliang mountain area of sichuan, a path carved by the feet of electric power inspection personnel is left in the dense forest. traditional power inspections mainly rely on manual labor. inspection personnel need to travel over mountains and ridges and overcome many difficulties, which is very labor-intensive. the development of drone inspections has greatly reduced the burden on inspection workers. however, in complex terrains such as mountainous areas, there are still problems such as signal obstruction and data transmission delay and loss, which affect drone inspection operations.
the size of a tablet computer and weighing only two kilograms - after installing such a ka-band light and small phased array terminal comparable to a "satellite network router" on a drone, the high-definition video footage captured by the drone can be clearly seen through the satellite link is transmitted back to the remote command center, solving the previous problems caused by signal blind spots. this is due to the construction of satellite internet.
what is satellite internet? today, when people generally rely on mobile phones to experience smart life, there are still some scenes that cannot be covered by terrestrial mobile communication networks, such as inaccessible deserts, deep oceans, mountain jungles, medium and high airspace, etc. relying on a satellite constellation composed of satellites, satellite internet can move the network into space and then transmit radio waves to the world, thereby breaking through the limitations of the earth's surface and topography and truly achieving global network coverage without blind spots.
beijing's commercial satellite companies have also sent services abroad. in may of this year, galaxy aerospace cooperated with universities in bangkok to realize the test verification of low-orbit satellite internet broadband communication network in thailand. this was also the first time that china's low-orbit broadband satellite internet went overseas.
the dots of artificial satellites in the sky have also created business opportunities for satellite operation service providers. space yuxing, a beijing-based enterprise engaged in satellite measurement and control, has found new development opportunities in the huge potential space economy - providing satellite safety management, satellite frequency coordination, launch license application, satellite on-orbit operation management and other services to global satellite companies .
"the cost of a satellite is often as high as hundreds of millions or even billions of yuan. once there are problems such as insufficient fuel, antenna failure or debris collision, the satellite may be scrapped and cause huge losses." the person in charge of aerospace yuxing said that his company's one of the roles is like a 4s shop in the satellite industry, repairing satellites in orbit.
monitoring the growth of crops through remote sensing satellite data can provide risk warnings for insurance companies, provide "space wi-fi" for operations in remote areas such as mountains and seas, and provide collision warning services for increasingly congested space traffic... with the pace of human innovation, we are gradually moving towards the vast sky, new services and industries that challenge people's imagination are constantly sprouting and growing.
at present, beijing has formed a commercial aerospace development pattern of "arrow in the south and star in the north". haidian, the main carrier of the "north star" in the "south arrow and north star", has gathered commercial satellite manufacturing companies such as micro-nano star and has initially formed a network covering satellite research and development, ground stations and terminal equipment, satellite measurement and control, satellite operation, and "communication, navigation and remote control". applications and other entire industry chain ecosystems except rocket launches. in the economic development zone and daxing district in the south, commercial rocket r&d and manufacturing companies have gathered, forming the "southern arrow" industrial cluster.
relevant persons in charge of the municipal science and technology commission and zhongguancun management committee introduced that the city will accelerate the research on key core technologies of star arrow, promote the construction of commercial aerospace characteristic industrial parks such as rocket street and satellite town, and give full play to artificial intelligence, big data, and blockchain technology. with advantageous technological capabilities such as blockchain and 6g, we will work with relevant application departments to use satellite application scenarios as a breakthrough to promote industrial innovation and development, and accelerate the formation of a commercial aerospace industry cluster.
expert comments
wang weizong, dean of the school of astronautics, beihang university:
broad prospects will form new economic growth points
commercial aerospace is considered a new productive force because it has a broad technical radiation area, involving rocket manufacturing, satellite manufacturing, ground equipment manufacturing and other technologies, and can promote a new generation of information technology, high-end equipment manufacturing, new energy, new materials and other advanced technologies. the development of sophisticated technology industries. wang weizong, dean of the school of astronautics at beihang university, said that with the increasing global demand for satellite applications such as communications, navigation, and remote sensing, commercial aerospace has broad prospects and can effectively stimulate market vitality.
wang weizong believes that commercial aerospace can significantly reduce launch costs and make aerospace services more economical and affordable through rocket recovery technology and reusable technology. at the same time, it can also promote communication technology innovation, promote the popularization of microsatellites and cubesat technology, and make satellite manufacturing and launch costs have dropped significantly, enabling the construction of low-orbit satellite networks, promoting innovation in global communications technology, and providing faster and wider coverage of internet services.
wang weizong said that commercial aerospace has an obvious driving effect on the industry: in the upstream, it can promote the development of spacecraft design and manufacturing, materials and technological innovation and other fields; in the midstream, it can promote the coordinated development of rocket launch services, ground equipment manufacturing and other links; downstream, it can promote the application of satellite application services in communications, remote sensing, navigation and other fields, forming a new economic growth point.
wang weizong said that in the fierce international commercial aerospace competition, beijing can build a more complete innovation ecosystem, promote the deep integration of industry, academia and research, and form a space infrastructure public service system with central-local collaboration and school-enterprise linkage; introduce and cultivate more high-end for aerospace technical talents, establish a complete talent training system to enhance scientific research and innovation capabilities; actively explore the international market, promote beijing commercial aerospace enterprises to participate in global aerospace projects, and enhance international influence.
super chain
commercial aerospace refers to aerospace activities operated using a business model to develop, manufacture, launch and apply aerospace technologies and services in a market-based manner. in 2014, the "guiding opinions of the state council on encouraging social investment by innovating investment and financing mechanisms in key areas" was released to encourage private capital to enter the aerospace field. different from traditional government-led aerospace activities, commercial aerospace pays more attention to market demand and economic benefits, emphasizing reducing the cost of aerospace activities and improving service efficiency through commercial operations.
source: beijing daily
reporters: cao zheng, sun qiru
