Shanghai Shangxing is mainly engaged in the overall design and integration of commercial satellites and the development and application of satellite data. It is the vanguard and experimental field for the transformation of the market mechanism and scientific research model of China Aerospace Science and Technology Group’s aerospace industry.
Today let’s talk about: the commercial aerospace “national team”-Shanghai Shangxing.
1
Shanghai Business Star
Shanghai Star, the full name of Shanghai Aerospace Technology Co., Ltd., was established on August 1, 2020. It is a commercial satellite system company under China Aerospace Science and Technology Group Co., Ltd. We are committed to establishing system demonstration, satellite design, whole-satellite integration, and batch manufacturing service systems for governments, enterprises, and end customers, and establishing a complete information service industry chain integrating satellites, ground terminals, and application processing.
2
China Business Star, Beijing Business Star and Shanghai Business Star
The full name of China Commercial Satellite is China Aerospace Science and Technology Group Commercial Satellite Co., Ltd. It was established in 2024 and is affiliated to China Aerospace Science and Technology Group Co., Ltd. It is also called Beijing Business Star internally. Shanghai Shangxing was originally affiliated to the Eighth Academy of Aerospace Science and Technology. It will be hosted by China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation Commercial Satellite Co., Ltd. in November 2024, but both parties will have independent legal persons and independent businesses.
3
Main business
Shanghai Shangxing is mainly engaged in four business sectors: “system solutions”, “satellite overall design”, “core product development” and “final assembly integration testing”. Satellite types cover the two major fields of communications and remote sensing; satellite sizes range from 50kg to 5 tons; satellite orbits cover all types of high, medium and low. It has undertaken a total of nearly 30 satellite development and demonstration tasks, and has successfully launched 10 satellites.
4
New flexible solar wing
The new flexible solar wing independently developed by Shanghai Shangxing has the characteristics of high storage ratio, high stiffness, and high reliability. It not only solves the pain points of traditional solar wings of “low storage ratio, high cost, and poor compatibility”, but also promotes the development of satellite platforms in the direction of “lightweight, modular, and low-cost”. At present, the first generation of flexible solar wing products has been verified in orbit many times, the technical status has been fully finalized, and the production line has been fully constructed, with an annual output of 200 sets by the end of 2025. The next-generation 100-square-meter solar wing simultaneously developed will be verified in the first half of 2026 and will achieve the development goals of “cost reduction by 30% + power generation increase by 40% + cycle time shortened by 50%”.
5
future outlook
Shanghai Commercial Star plans to rely on the networking needs of my country’s large-scale satellite constellations and the synergy advantages of the Yangtze River Delta industry to develop core products such as satellite platforms, core loads and key components. By building an intelligent satellite mass production base, it will achieve the goal of annual production of hundreds of 500kg commercial satellites and annual delivery of 200 sets of flexible solar wings, compressing the single-satellite development cycle to less than 30 days. In addition, Shanghai Commercial Star also plans to form differentiated competitive advantages with other commercial aerospace companies by breaking through satellite system-level core technologies, building modular satellite platforms, developing flexible solar wings, highly integrated on-board information systems and other core products. Shanghai Commercial Star is backed by the Aerospace Science and Technology Group and China Commercial Star, and will become an important pole of my country’s commercial satellite companies through the accumulation of technology and experience from the Eighth Academy of Aerospace Science and Technology, and by taking advantage of commercial operations.
