Rocket is the core and foundation of aerospace engineering. How strong the rocket carrying capacity is, how big the space stage is. Recently, China’s private commercial launch vehicle successfully launched its first launch into orbit. Previously, China’s private rocket companies have achieved many major technological breakthroughs. This shows that in addition to the increasingly powerful "national team", a number of private space forces have emerged.
"With the development of aerospace technology and market economy, as well as the continuous advancement of national strategic policies, commercial aerospace will become the core of development in the aerospace field." Wang Yiran, vice chairman of China Aerospace Society, said at the Global Geographic Information Developers Conference a few days ago. Today, in the global commercial aerospace field, China’s space private enterprises and the "national team" work together, and the commercial aerospace industry is about to usher in a golden period of development.
The market is open, and the industrial scale is expected to reach 100 billion.
According to the definition of the Federal Aviation Administration of the United States, commercial aerospace refers to the space activities that are aimed at making profits in accordance with market rules and with resource elements such as technology, capital and talents. Since China opened its commercial aerospace industry in 2015, private commercial aerospace enterprises have been established and developed rapidly. By the end of last year, there were more than 100 registered commercial aerospace companies in China. Last year, the domestic financing in this field was close to 3.6 billion yuan, an increase of 67% over the previous year.
In June this year, the relevant departments issued the "Notice on Promoting the Standardized and Orderly Development of Commercial Launch Vehicles", which is the first official document to give detailed guidance to commercial launch vehicles after China’s commercial space opening. The Notice provides a good policy environment for the development of private commercial aerospace companies.
The first private rocket successfully put into orbit in China was developed by private aerospace enterprises and Beijing Star Glory Space Technology Co., Ltd., which is a major breakthrough achieved by China’s private aerospace industry after years of hard work. "This is the launch vehicle with the largest take-off scale and the strongest carrying capacity in China’s private commercial aerospace industry, which indicates that China has the only private company in the world that can launch launch launch vehicles except the United States." Distinguished professor Zhang Xiaomin, from the School of Astronautics, Beijing Institute of Technology, believes that the successful launch will further promote the development of China’s commercial aerospace industry.
"The demand for satellite communications, navigation, remote sensing and other services will continue to expand from industrial applications to the mass consumer market, and the market size of the commercial aerospace industry is expected to reach 100 billion. More and more people will enjoy the convenience brought by products and space services created by space activities. " When it comes to industrial prospects, Li Shuncheng, co-founder and director of Star Glory, is full of confidence. He told reporters that in this historic launch mission, Star Glory paid attention to fully tapping the commercial value: on the one hand, it carried out satellite launch service cooperation, on the other hand, it carried out refreshing commercialization attempts such as "load marketing".
"Rocket launch is the upstream of satellite manufacturing and application. Only when the bottleneck problem of rocket launch is solved can the satellite manufacturing and application industry develop at a faster speed and on a larger scale." Li Shuncheng said that the development of private launch vehicles will continue to release the vitality of China’s satellite and its industrial chain market. "A large number of related enterprises in China are eager to try, and strive to reduce costs, improve reliability and success rate through technological progress, so as to achieve profitability."
It is a trend to control costs and take a differentiated route.
The commercial aerospace field has high technology content, high entry threshold and long investment return period. The establishment of private enterprises cannot rely on temporary courage, but must be based on deep accumulation and accurate judgment. Whether we can explore a suitable development path is the key to the survival and development of space private enterprises.
It is understood that there are currently 49 launch vehicle enterprises with independent legal personality in China, 41 of which are private enterprises. Besides StarCraft Glory, there are also Beijing Blue Arrow, Zero one club and Lingke Aerospace. "Private rocket enterprises need to explore their own product development models and business logic, so that they can find a new world and form core competitiveness in the market on the basis of the country’s overall accumulation." Zhang Changwu, CEO of Blue Arrow Aerospace, said in an interview with the media.
On the technical route, Blue Arrow Aerospace chose a medium-sized liquid rocket. Since the successful test run of TQ-12 liquid oxygen methane engine of Tianque in May this year, the large thrust liquid oxygen methane rocket engine owned by Blue Arrow Aerospace has completed the whole system test run. The success of the test run officially declared that China private aerospace enterprises had mastered the key technologies of the 100-ton liquid rocket engine for the first time and had the support capacity needed for engine development.
"The reason why we chose this technical route is that there are fewer competitors at present. Not only that, medium-sized liquid rockets are our active choice for the fast-growing market demand for launching small satellites in low orbit in space in the future. Whether at home or abroad, medium-sized liquid launch vehicles are gaps that need to be filled urgently. " Zhang Changwu said.
It is also one of the first commercial aerospace companies engaged in rocket development in China. Lingke Aerospace focuses on repeatable launch and liquid rocket engine technology, and took the lead in realizing the first recoverable rocket in China. In August this year, Lingke Aerospace completed the third recoverable rocket test, which symbolizes that Lingke Aerospace has made new breakthroughs in the field of recoverable rockets. "Recycling and reusability is the inevitable direction of rocket development in the future, and it is also the key core technology that Lingke Aerospace must firmly grasp in the commercial aerospace field." Chu Longfei, co-founder of Lingke Aerospace, said that only recyclable technology can greatly reduce the launch cost.
"National Team" and private enterprises, hand in hand into the blue sky.
"At the beginning of our business, we got orders from aerospace institutes. This is actually a very good cooperation process, and there will be different levels of cooperation inside and outside the system. " Hu Zhenyu, one of the founders of Lingke Aerospace, believes that the "national team" and private enterprises complement and promote each other. In the future, private enterprises will be a useful and powerful supplement to the national space industry.
Compared with American aerospace industry, China is still relatively weak. Observing the space system of the United States, the "national team" focuses on "technical exploration", while a large number of commercial operations are given to commercial companies such as Boeing and Loma. "In the future, China’s commercial aerospace industry will gradually develop in this direction. State-owned enterprises will choose those tasks that are given more sense of mission, while private companies will use more flexible mechanisms and more market-oriented models to do those basic tasks. " Hu Zhenyu thinks.
"The advantage of private aerospace companies lies in the innovation of management mode. Some untested new technologies can be used in project development, while traditional rockets generally do not easily use new technologies." Wen Xin, a professor at the School of Aerospace, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, told reporters that the requirements of short cycle, rapid launch and low operating cost of the "business model" can promote the reform of traditional enterprise management system and improve management efficiency; Moreover, after the development of commercial space, it will form a competitive relationship with traditional space, which will further promote the cost reduction and technological development of rocket launch.
Another advantage of private aerospace companies is that they can respond to the market more quickly while ensuring high quality. This is particularly important for the increasingly flexible international market. In fact, the "national team" with large scale and abundant resources is also making more flexible commercialization attempts.
On August 17th, the "Jielong-1" solid launch vehicle developed by the First Academy of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation was successfully launched, which was the first time that the "national team" adopted the "pure commercial" mode to launch space. Its successful launch marks that the "national team" has accelerated its March into commercial aerospace and opened a new chapter in China’s commercial aerospace field.
“‘ Pure business ’ The development of the rocket comes from social capital financing, and the cost of entering the orbit is the lowest. " Tang Yagang, president of China Long March Rocket Co., Ltd., affiliated to the First Hospital, introduced that "Jielong No.1" is financing for social capital. In the past, rocket development basically cooperated with units in the system, but "Jielong No.1" broke the original supporting relationship and chose the supporting unit with the best cost performance through competition.
China’s aerospace industry chain is solid and profound, and the market demand is strong and vigorous. With the development of China’s commercial aerospace field, the "national team" and private enterprises will join hands to promote China to become a space power.
Reporter Wang Tian Zhang Xuan
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