China's Space Program Thread II

[taxiya]

Covers both VSAT & phased array users Uses experimental Longjiang-3 (龙江三号) flat-type LEO broadband comsat

It would be good to know the size of this UE.

what does all development mean ? it means something happening. HW is testing satellite based internet

When talking about satellite based internet, we have to bring in Starlink. What I think worth to know is that Huawei is proposing 3GPP standard, if succeed it will be the standard that Ericsson, Nokia and Samsung adopt. While Starlink is not following 3GPP standard, at least its air interface isn't open to public like 3GPP standard. So the significance of Huawei's activity could be like GSM/WCDMA/LTE fightging US backed standard, except this time Huawei leads the charge instead of Ericsson/Nokia. Again the (rest of) world fighting US.

 

[tacoburger]

LandSpace announced its new version of Zhuque-3 stainless steel reusable rocket. LEO 20t expandable

I wonder when will it see it's first flight and how soon it will be reusable. And how long the ZQ-2 will keep flying and will they try to make it reusable too? They invested so much into the Jiuquan launch site to make it able to support methane rockets that it will be weird if it's scrapped so fast.

Also what private companies do you think will survive the next few years? Space pioneer looks very impressive, if they can get their TL-3 flying by next year, that's development speed that would put even SpaceX to shame. Galactic energy has the most impressive launch record so far and a steady income stream from it, but their Pallas-1's payload is very unimpressive compared to the other companies that are going for a Falcon 9 tier payload for their workhorse resuable rocket.

Landspace currently has the most powerful rocket currently flying, is ramping up launch rates and having the first methane rocket is a good PR boost. Deep blue aerospace might be the first to get resuablilty but their rocket is the weakest of the bunch and they haven't launched a single rocket yet. Orienspace and a few other new companies are too early to tell, they are quite a way off from launching their first liquid fuelled rockets. Ispace seems to be the weakest to me, with such a string of failed launches and no income unti the Hyperbola-3 flies in 2025.

 

[Dolcevita]

There is no need to embed the entire Twitter thread. It's messy looking and clogs up precious screen real estate. Please summarize the information briefly and then provide one link, which is more than sufficient. Thank you.

ON the other hand, I appreciate kejora's effort to benefit those of us who do not have x (twitter) account.

 

[Asug]

I wonder when will it see it's first flight and how soon it will be reusable. And how long the ZQ-2 will keep flying and will they try to make it reusable too? They invested so much into the Jiuquan launch site to make it able to support methane rockets that it will be weird if it's scrapped so fast.

Also what private companies do you think will survive the next few years? Space pioneer looks very impressive, if they can get their TL-3 flying by next year, that's development speed that would put even SpaceX to shame. Galactic energy has the most impressive launch record so far and a steady income stream from it, but their Pallas-1's payload is very unimpressive compared to the other companies that are going for a Falcon 9 tier payload for their workhorse resuable rocket.

Landspace currently has the most powerful rocket currently flying, is ramping up launch rates and having the first methane rocket is a good PR boost. Deep blue aerospace might be the first to get resuablilty but their rocket is the weakest of the bunch and they haven't launched a single rocket yet. Orienspace and a few other new companies are too early to tell, they are quite a way off from launching their first liquid fuelled rockets. Ispace seems to be the weakest to me, with such a string of failed launches and no income unti the Hyperbola-3 flies in 2025.

I agree with you. In my opinion the top five favorites look like this:
1) Space pioneer
2) Landspace
4) Deep blue aerospace
3) Galactic energy
5) iSpace
Maybe we should also include CAS Space, with its Lijian-3.

 

[Michael90]

Just so you know, as long as the current regulation of PRC goes, private entities including Huawei will never be in the telecom business as Satnet and Guawang, just like it is not competing with China Mobile or China Telecom. No matter how much you want, telecom as a stratigic domain like energy/power grid etc. is not something that private capital is allowed to touch, unless you get rid of CCP

Agree. I think that's something that is often easy for us all to forget.

 

[escobar]

With the election of a pro-US president in Agentina, there may be risk of SSF TTC ground station there being closed

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1727119716840304726

 

[tacoburger]

I agree with you. In my opinion the top five favorites look like this:
1) Space pioneer
2) Landspace
4) Deep blue aerospace
3) Galactic energy
5) iSpace
Maybe we should also include CAS Space, with its Lijian-3.

I would put galactic energy above DBA. And CAS space is partially state owned soo... and they seem to be moving very slowly and with not very impressive hardware compared to some on the list.

Also tangent here, but looking up on this private companies, I'm surprised at how little funding that they're getting. It's hard to precisely track their investing and funding rounds and there might be other revenue streams that they might be getting, like how Ispace is plastering their rockets in ads but overall it seems like they are somehow getting by with just a few hundreds million Yuan, which is really not much to work on when working on rockets, there's dozens of movies each year that get more budget.

Yeah, the economy is sluggish, a rocket company is new and niche and the industry is over crowded as hell so I can understand how investors are not keen to be throwing billions at them. But still, I would have expected some more local government support, investment groups or some billionarine who wants to be the next Elon musk to throw some loose change at them. There's already lots of unproductive investment in China so few more millions going into this cutting edge new industries with so much potential seems like a no-brainer.

There's already a few companies that have more or less dropped out of the race like linkspace and I wonder if that's due to lack of funding. And while I fully expect more companies like Ispace to fail and be consolidated due to their mistakes, I would at least like to see all of them develop a worthy workhorse reusable rocket and complete with the others for market share first. Instead of being strangled in the crib before being able to spread their wings.

And of course, development time could always be sped up with more money and more projects and risky projects could be worked on.

 

[escobar]

I agree with you. In my opinion the top five favorites look like this:
1) Space pioneer
2) Landspace
4) Deep blue aerospace
3) Galactic energy
5) iSpace
Maybe we should also include CAS Space, with its Lijian-3.

Top 4: Space Pionneer, Landspace, Galactic Energy and OrienSpace.

Also tangent here, but looking up on this private companies, I'm surprised at how little funding that they're getting. It's hard to precisely track their investing and funding rounds and there might be other revenue streams that they might be getting, like how Ispace is plastering their rockets in ads but overall it seems like they are somehow getting by with just a few hundreds million Yuan, which is really not much to work on when working on rockets, there's dozens of movies each year that get more budget.

Yeah, the economy is sluggish, a rocket company is new and niche and the industry is over crowded as hell so I can understand how investors are not keen to be throwing billions at them. But still, I would have expected some more local government support, investment groups or some billionarine who wants to be the next Elon musk to throw some loose change at them. There's already lots of unproductive investment in China so few more millions going into this cutting edge new industries with so much potential seems like a no-brainer.

There's already a few companies that have more or less dropped out of the race like linkspace and I wonder if that's due to lack of funding. And while I fully expect more companies like Ispace to fail and be consolidated due to their mistakes, I would at least like to see all of them develop a worthy workhorse reusable rocket and complete with the others for market share first. Instead of being strangled in the crib before being able to spread their wings.

And of course, development time could always be sped up with more money and more projects could be worked on.

Don't forget all the support they are getting from the state: new commercial launch pad at WSCL just for them, technical support from SSF...

 

[tacoburger]

OrienSpace.

Very new and hasn't launched a single rocket yet. It's hard to say how fast or serious they are.

Don't forget all the support they are getting from the state: new commercial launch pad at WSCL just for them, technical support from SSF...

True true, but money at the end of the day is still the most important factor, especially for companies that are in such an early development stage and doesn't have a single product to sell yet and whose development cycle takes so many years. People have to eat and companies have to pay rent. How many promising countries got choked to death before they could even walk on their own two feet? Spacex was once only a single failed launch away from bankruptcy...

Luckily only Ispace seems to be crisis mode, their last funding round was in 2020 and they have had zero income since then and until the Hyberbola-3 starts flying in 2025 . Most of the other companies have had more recent funding rounds though the amount raised was pathetic and can actually start earning income from launches. But as bad a job as Ispace is doing with all their recent failed launches, I still want to see them at least get their Hyberbola-3 up and flying. Hopefully their recent hop test can secure them a little more funding to last them until 2025.

 

[Asug]

let's capture the current moment...