Dongfang Hour - the China Space Podcast

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 1 - 7 February.
1) iSpace Fails in the Second Launch of the Hyperbola-1
Chinese launch startup iSpace failed in the second launch of its Hyperbola-1 rocket earlier this week, with a Chinese language report reporting abnormalities in both the first and second stages in a launch on Monday 1 Feb. It was later pointed out that there had been apparently significant modifications to the Hyperbola-1 rocket between the first and second launch, which may have complicated the launch process. It may also have been an indication of the extent to which Chinese commercial space companies are by design nimble, needing to pivot often in order to increase their chances of survival. The launch failure is a setback for iSpace, and may create an opening for Landspace, or even Galactic Energy, to jump out in front as China’s most advanced commercial launch company. iSpace appears to still be a quite solid company, with an intact leadership team and a successful launch from 2019 under their belt. That said, the company has historically been less public about their activities than competitors such as Landspace or Expace, so it is hard to say how much trouble iSpace is or is not in following the launch failure.
2) Beijing Adds Satellite Internet to its Priorities for 2021
Actually from last week, we saw the Municipal People’s Congress of Beijing Municipality, where the city’s leaders discussed key tasks for the coming 1 year, as well as the coming 5-year plan period (2021-2025). This included many high-level targets, including 6% economic growth for the city in 2021, urban unemployment below 5%, and CPI of 3%. As reported by Chinese space industry think tank and event organizer FutureSpace, the Beijing Government’s document included emphasis on developing the digital economy, promoting high-quality development, and developing services that can be deployed across the Belt and Road. While admittedly nebulous, the inclusion of these several buzz phrases does reveal a fair amount about Beijing’s aspirations. The plans also mentioned two specific phrases related to satellite, namely developing a satellite internet industry, and accelerating development of high-end precision sensors for space/aerospace.
3) OneSpace Completes Successful Reentry Test Launch
Chinese launch startup OneSpace completed a test launch of its OSX-6B on 5 February. The launch took place from Northwest China, with the test flight lasting approximately 580 seconds, reaching an altitude of 300km. Noteworthily, the rocket was called the Chongqing Liangjiang Star, an homage to the Liangjiang New Area of Chongqing. Liangjiang is a major initiative by the Chongqing Municipal Government, with significant investment going into industrial parks and other related infrastructure in Liangjiang.
4) Tianwen-1 sends back its first image of Mars
We received this week the first image of Mars from Tianwen-1, a beautiful monochrome picture shot at 2.2 million km away from Mars, as the Chinese spacecraft enters its final approach. This is symbolic of Tianwen-1 entering the final phases of its trip to Mars as it gets ready to be “captured” by the Martian gravitational field. Tianwen-1 was launched on July 23 2020, in the Mars launch window of 2020 (which occurs every 26

Hello, and thanks for stopping by the Dongfang Hour! Today, we are pleased to introduce a new initiative from the DFH, namely the China Aero and Space Weekly News Roundup. The Roundup will act as a ~15mins per week supplement to our more in-depth ~60min ~monthly discussions on various Chinese aerospace and space industry topics. Updates from this week:
An article from independent Chinese space media source “小火箭“ (“Small Rocket”) detailed massively expanded plans for China’s LEO broadband constellations. The article was removed soon after publication, and we cannot verify the authenticity of the plans. However, 小火箭 is a known media source in the industry, and we believe the article was likely more than unsubstantiated rumors. The constellation plans to have nearly 13,000 satellites across 7 “sub-constellations”.
Shaanxi Zhongtian Rocket Company completed its IPO on the Shenzhen stock exchange. The company has seen its share price increase by the 10% limit every day since IPO, though this week the market has been closed due to National Holiday/”Golden Week”.
A fairing from a Long March-5B launch that occurred in May 2020 washed up on the beach in Hong Kong. Local media had a field day with (incorrect, I have been told) speculation about the risks of contamination.
An excellent Space Cafe talk hosted by SpaceWatch.Global, and featuring Dr. Bhavya Lal of the Science and Technology Policy Institute (STPI) on the topic of Chinese commercial space.
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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 this week include:
1) Chang’e-5 Lunar Return Mission
Following up on last week’s discussion on Chang’e-5 launch, which occurred on 24 November, this week we bring news of Chang’e-5’s arrival on the Moon.
If we pick up where we left off last weekend on the 29th of November, Chang’e 5 had just inserted itself into orbit around the moon. Since then, the lander has detached and performed an autonomous landing at the landing site, in the area called the Sea of Storms.
The lander then had 48 hours to select the area to drill, perform the drilling, and the sample was then scooped up and stored in the ascent vehicle. All of this was performed successfully on the 2nd of December.
The lander also had the opportunity to take a number of stunning images, with an unprecedented resolution for moon pictures. It also took a snapshot of the Chinese flag held by an extension arm.
On the 4th of December, the ascent module lifted off successfully, leaving the lander on the moon, and which has no further purpose. The ascent module then deployed its solar panels and docked successfully on the 6th of December.
2) Charming Globe Completes a Massive RMB 2.4 Billion Pre-IPO Round of Funding
Chinese EO satellite manufacturer and constellation operator Charming Globe announced a RMB 2.46 billion (US$375M) round of funding on 1 December. The round is considered the company’s “pre-IPO” round, and thus implies that Charming Globe will likely IPO in the near-term. This should be interesting to watch, particularly 1) what do their financials look like, and 2) whether they IPO in Shanghai, Shenzhen, or Star Board. Most recently, a company representative noted earlier this year that the company’s 2019 revenues were around RMB 100M. This is somewhat astonishing when comparing these two numbers--
This represents the single largest funding round by a Chinese commercial space company. Charming Globe is arguably China’s leading EO satellite manufacturer. The company is a CAS spinoff, HQed in Changchun, Jilin province, and to now already has 20+ satellites in orbit, many of which have been launched by Kuaizhou rockets.
The company has plans for 60x EO satellites in its first phase constellation, and 138x EO satellites in its second phase constellation. Noteworthily, CGSTL’s satellites are primarily optical, due to the fact that the company is a spinoff from the CAS Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics, and Physics. The company has announced some initiatives for SAR and hyperspectral, and this funding may also help develop these technologies.
Charming Globe is noteworthy for being one of several “hybrids” in China, which is to say, a commercial company that has some affiliation with the state. In the case of CGSTL, the company is a spinoff from CAS, but has a rather unusual shareholder structure.
3) Recommended article on Yaogan
From around 1.5 weeks ago, an excellent article from a French aerospace/space blog about China’s recent Yaogan launch, and the constellation more generally. The article gives some interesting insights on the strategic importance of Yaogan, what it might be used for, and what we might expect in the future from China in terms of signal intelligence and EO. The article also includes some excellent data visualization and is preceded by a couple of related articles on Yaogan by the same author.
We thank you for your kind attention, and look forward to seeing you next time!
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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 10 - 16 May:
1) Chinese Tianwen-1 Mars Missions attempts Atmospheric Entry and Landing of the Zhurong Rover
2) Chinese Launch Company Galactic Energy signs Collaboration Agreement with China Huateng Group to Develop International Launch Opportunities
3) iSpace Completes a Test of its Single-Layer Common Bulkhead Fuel Tank
4) CGWIC to open an office in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, to promote BeiDou Adoption
For a more in-depth coverage of weekly China space news, please subscribe to our new newsletter: http://getrevue.co/profile/dongfanghour
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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! Until then, don’t forget to follow us on YouTube, Twitter, or LinkedIn, or your local podcast source.

This week, we bring you updates on China’s Earth Observation sector, discussions on satellite 5G/6G and IoT, but first, part 2 of our summary of the 6th annual China Commercial Aerospace Forum, held in Wuhan 2 weeks ago.

6th China Commercial Aerospace Forum Summary (part 2/2):

1. iSpace: One of the leading private launch companies in China, company VP Huo Jia at CCAF discussed their plans for Hyperbola-2, as well as post-Hyperbola-2 projects:
   • Hyperbola-2: 100 km hopping experiments to test the landing/engine throttling/control capabilities by end of 2020; and then full orbital test of Hyperbola-2 if hopping tests are conclusive.
   • Hyperbola-3: a medium lift rocket, which can be turned to heavy lift with 2 or 4 side boosters. Development of the Jiaodian-2 heavy thrust methalox engine (100 tons thrust).
2. Zhongke Aerospace (aka CAS Space): technical discussion on launch vehicle control, also indicated that the first launch of ZK-1 would be in september 2021.
   
3. EO companies with an increasing vertical approach to the industry: A number of EO companies have seen major traction over the past several years, and several of them spoke at the CCAF. Several EO companies are vertically integrating across different parts of the value chain.
   
4. Related to EO, pretty good article published tby Satellite & Network (卫星与网络) about investment into the EO sector. It mentions that the ‘midstream’ services in EO are most popular for private investment, partly because compared to the other two main types of space applications (comms and satnav), EO is “more open to commercial enterprise and with stronger commercial flexibility”.

Non-CCAF news

1. Yaogan launch: a group of 3x Yaogan satellites were launched from Xichang this week. Yaogan is one of China’s largest EO initiatives, with the satellites believed to be focused on military applications. Piggy backing the Yaogan launch was the Tianqi-6 satellite of the Guodian Gaoke's 38-satellite IoT constellation.

Other Conferences

1. China Satellite Conference: The conference was standing room only, with a sold-out house at the Nikko Hotel in Beijing. Interesting takeaway was the sub-forum on Satellite 5G and 6G, which included CETC and could be an indication of CETC pushing more into space as a way of expanding their business.
   
2. China Industrial IoT + 5G Forum Wuhan: at the forum, MIIT discussed the idea of industrial IoT + 5G. Ms Han Xia, Director of Information and Communication Administration Bureau of MIIT, mentioned 3 challenges faced by rollout of Industrial IoT:
   • Uneven levels of digitization among enterprises.
   • Insufficient industrial support capacity for things like gateways, terminals, etc.
   • Integrated applications still need to be deepened/improved
3. A related article mentioned that in China, there have been more than 800 “Industrial IoT + 5G” projects commenced thus far, with a total investment of RMB 3.4 billion.