Aero & Space Weekly News Round-Up - Ep.5: CCAF 2020 Special Edition (Part 2 of 2)

11/02/20 • 30 min

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):

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).
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.
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.
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

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

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.
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
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.

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

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).
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.
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.
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

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

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.
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
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.

Previous Episode

Aero & Space Weekly News Round-Up - Ep.4: CCAF 2020 Special Edition (Part 1 of 2)

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.

Next Episode

Aero & Space Weekly News Round-Up - Ep.6 (2nd - 8th Nov. 2020)

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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