Chinese commercial satellite manufacturer MinoSpace has won a contract valued at 804 million yuan ($111 million) to construct a remote sensing satellite constellation for Sichuan Province, marking a significant step in the country\u2019s growing use of private firms in national space infrastructure projects.<\/p>\n
The deal, announced May 18 by the National Public Resources Trading Platform in Sichuan and reported by the Economic Observer<\/em>, involves the development of a \u201cspace satellite constellation\u201d approved by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), China\u2019s top economic planning agency. The project aligns with China\u2019s broader goals of enhancing satellite internet and remote sensing infrastructure.<\/p>\n Under the contract, Beijing-based MinoSpace\u2014formally known as Beijing Weina Star Technology Co., Ltd.\u2014will develop and launch a constellation comprising six synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and four optical satellites. The firm will also be responsible for satellite networking and in-orbit commissioning.<\/p>\n The project, intended to serve the Meishan region of Sichuan Province, marks a rare example of a commercial company being granted end-to-end responsibility for a space infrastructure project, previously a domain dominated by state-owned giants such as China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation (CASIC), and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).<\/p>\n \u201cThis project demonstrates the growing confidence in private aerospace firms to undertake large-scale, integrated missions that were once exclusive to traditional state players,\u201d the company said in a statement cited by local media.<\/p>\n Founded in 2017, MinoSpace specializes in satellite manufacturing, onboard components, and ground systems. The firm raised 1 billion yuan ($137 million) in a Series C funding round in June 2024, aimed at supporting major national and commercial missions related to satellite internet and Earth observation.<\/p>\n The company\u2019s progress continued this week, as its Taijing-3 (04) and Taijing-4 (02A) satellites were successfully launched into orbit on May 21 aboard a Kinetica-1 (Lijian-1) solid-fueled rocket. The satellites carry optical and SAR payloads, respectively.<\/p>\n MinoSpace\u2019s contract is the latest indication of China\u2019s increasing openness to commercial participation in strategic space initiatives. The China Manned Space Engineering Office (CMSEO) has recently awarded contracts to commercial firms for cargo missions to the Tiangong space station and has initiated open bidding processes for future lunar remote sensing satellites.<\/p>\n While many of these missions are still awarded to state-backed institutions, such developments suggest a shifting landscape in which private firms could play a larger role in China\u2019s evolving space economy.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Chinese commercial satellite manufacturer MinoSpace has won a contract valued at 804 million yuan ($111 million) to construct a remote sensing satellite constellation for Sichuan Province, marking a significant step in the country\u2019s growing use of private firms in national space infrastructure projects. The deal, announced May 18 by the National Public Resources Trading Platform […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[135,259,361,6595,6596],"class_list":["post-20307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-china","tag-funding","tag-minospace","tag-ndrc","tag-sichuan"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20307"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20307"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20307\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}