On October 11, 2024, news leaked out that Dong Weimin, executive vice governor of Sichuan Province, was investigating the Western Space Port in Liangshan. The industry was abuzz. Both the media and related industries were paying close attention to this matter. The highlight of this news is that “Dong Weimin investigated the Mianning County launch site park and pre-selected service area.” Everyone is paying attention to whether Xichang will build a commercial launch station.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s talk briefly about this matter.<\/p>\n
Before talking about Xichang, let\u2019s talk about Xiangshan, Wenchang, Yangjiang and Jiuquan.<\/p>\n
Xiangshan: In February 2021, the “Ningbo City’s Fourteenth Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development and Outline of Long-term Goals for 2035” proposed to “accelerate the construction of an international commercial satellite launch center.” In May 2021, Ningbo International Commercial Space Launch Center was included in the “14th Five-Year Plan for Major Construction Projects in Zhejiang Province”. Since then, news of the construction of a commercial space launch center in Xiangshan has spread like wildfire. Xiangshan is located at 30 degrees north latitude and has a relatively low dimension, which is more favorable for rocket launches. Secondly, Xiangshan is close to the sea, so the landing area is safe, and the rocket navigation area is almost all ocean, which is conducive to future rocket recovery. In addition, Xiangshan is close to the Yangtze River Delta Economic Zone, surrounded by economically developed cities such as Shanghai, Hangzhou, and Ningbo, with complete industrial facilities. Shanghai Yuanxin and the Eighth Academy of Aerospace Science and Technology are in Shanghai, Blue Arrow is in Jiaxing, and Tianbing is in Zhangjiagang. These companies all have demand for workstations, and Xiangshan is very close to them. Another key factor is that Zhejiang Province is rich and has great advantages in government coordination, which has also attracted a lot of attention in the construction of the launch center in Xiangshan. However, as of today, the Xiangshan Space Launch Center has not yet been built.<\/p>\n
Yangjiang: The “Guangdong Province Action Plan to Promote High-Quality Development of Commercial Aerospace (2024-2028)” proposes to support the construction of commercial aerospace industrial parks in Yangjiang, focusing on promoting the development of star and arrow assembly manufacturing, satellite applications, aerospace science popularization, aerospace culture and tourism and other characteristic industrial clusters. In the future, we will also build a characteristic space infrastructure system in Guangdong, promote the planning and demonstration of the Guangdong commercial space launch site, actively seek national support to build a satellite launch home port and sea launch base in Yangjiang that integrate satellite rocket assembly, launch command and control, and accelerate the formation of land and sea launch capabilities. With the release of the plan, news about the construction of launch stations in Yangjiang also began to leak out. Yangjiang’s location advantage is more obvious. Yangjiang’s latitude is about 21\u00b028′ north latitude, which is lower than Xiangshan. It can make greater use of the earth’s rotation speed, thereby saving fuel. At the same time, Guangdong Province also has aerospace industry-related supporting facilities, and China Aerospace has a deep industrial layout in Guangdong. In addition, in February this year, my country used the Jielong 3 carrier rocket in the waters near Yangjiang, Guangdong, to successfully launch a total of nine satellites: DRO-L satellite, Zhixing 2A satellite, Dongfang Huiyan Gaofen 01 satellite, Weihai No. 1 01-02 satellite, Star Times 18-20 satellite and NEXSAT-1 satellite. This launch was guaranteed by the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center. However, as of now, there are only relevant news coming out but no actual action.<\/p>\n
Wenchang: On April 13, 2018, General Secretary Xi Jinping delivered an important speech at a conference celebrating the 30th anniversary of the establishment of the Hainan Provincial Special Economic Zone, solemnly announcing the Party Central Committee\u2019s decision to support the construction of a free trade port on the entire island of Hainan. Subsequently, the “Guiding Opinions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council on Supporting Hainan’s Comprehensive Deepening of Reform and Opening Up” clearly stated that “relying on the Hainan Wenchang Space Launch Site, we will promote the construction of Hainan Wenchang International Space City.” In the “Opinions on Several Special Measures to Support the Construction of Hainan Free Trade Port and Relax Market Access” issued by the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Commerce, nine support policies were clearly proposed to optimize the market access environment in Hainan’s commercial aerospace field and develop commercial aerospace. On July 6, 2022, the Hainan Commercial Space Launch Site started construction in Wenchang. On October 30, 2022, construction of the second station of the Hainan Commercial Space Launch Site officially started. On December 29, 2023, the launch station No. 1 of the Hainan International Commercial Space Launch Site was officially completed. On June 6, 2024, the launch station No. 2 of the Hainan Commercial Space Launch Site, China\u2019s first liquid universal launch station, was officially completed. On July 16, 2024, the Hainan Commercial Space Launch Site officially announced that it has the capability to execute launches. The advantages of building a launch station in Wenchang are that Wenchang has a low latitude (about 19\u00b0 north latitude), is close to the equator, and has high carrying efficiency. The rocket carrying capacity can be increased by 10% to 15%. In terms of safety, because the landing areas of all stages of rockets are oceans and do not pass through densely populated areas, it will facilitate the development of the rocket recycling industry in the future. In terms of transportation, compared with the existing launch sites in China, the Wenchang launch site can use ships to transport large launch vehicles without size restrictions. Up to now, Hainan Commercial Space Launch Site is the only commercial space launch site in my country.<\/p>\n
Jiuquan: Blue Arrow Aerospace has a commercial space launch station in Jiuquan. The construction is led by Blue Arrow Aerospace and jointly owned by Blue Arrow Aerospace and the launch site. Construction began in September 2020 and has been completed and put into use. China Aerospace has a proprietary launch station in Jiuquan for launching Lijian No. 1. It currently plans to build a liquid launch station for launching Lijian No. 2 and so on. Tianbing Technology is building a liquid launch station for launching Tianlong 3.<\/p>\n
The above is the background of the commercial space launch center before the news about Liangshan came out.<\/p>\n
Next, let\u2019s talk about why news of building a commercial space launch center continues to spread. The main reason is the imbalance between demand and supply.<\/p>\n
Make a simple rough estimate based on existing data. Not counting other commercial space launch missions, we only have a rough estimate of the deployment plans for the two giant constellations of Xingwang and Yuanxin. StarNet and Yuanxin have a total of about 28,000 satellites. According to Yuanxin\u2019s current launch data, using Chang Liujia to launch 18 satellites with one arrow requires 1,555 times. The calculation here is relatively simple and rough. It does not take into account the use of other rockets for launch, nor does it take into account the emergence of high-thrust rockets in our country in the future. However, it also does not take into account the changes in core load weight as satellite functions continue to improve in the future, so the data is relatively rough, but it can still be used as a reference.<\/p>\n
Faced with such a huge launch demand, there are basically only two ways. One is to develop a rocket with greater thrust, and the other is to increase the frequency of launches. To increase the frequency of launches, we must either build more launch stations or shorten the test and launch cycle. To develop a rocket with greater thrust, a greater thrust engine is needed. This is a technical issue with more uncontrollable factors, so I won\u2019t go into details. Then there is the shortening of the test and development cycle, which not only requires close cooperation from all parties, but also involves a substantial improvement in the material performance of some links. I will not go into detail on this. If you want to know more, you can check the information yourself. Therefore, it is reasonable for the news about the construction of launch stations in the above places to leak out.<\/p>\n
And why is Xichang getting so much attention this time?<\/p>\n
Let’s go back and take a brief look at the previous background. What are the differences between Xiangshan, Yangjiang, and Wenchang? Before the construction of the Hainan Commercial Space Launch Site, Wenchang had a space launch site. The construction of the China Wenchang Space Launch Site started in September 2009. Xichang currently also has a space launch center. The Xichang Satellite Launch Center was established in 1970 and delivered for use in 1982. This is the difference between Xiangshan, Yangjiang and Wenchang. It may also be the reason why Liangshan has received relatively high attention this time. It is also the advantage of Xichang. Refer to the “Notice of the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense and the Equipment Development Department of the Central Military Commission on Promoting the Standardized and Orderly Development of Commercial Launch Vehicles”, from which we can see another more important force. I will not go into details here. After all, among Xiangshan, Yangjiang and Wenchang, only Wenchang has taken actual actions, so you can take a closer look.<\/p>\n
There is no telling which path this news will eventually develop. There are many factors that influence whether things ultimately come to fruition, such as the inconvenient transportation, complex landing areas, weak industrial supporting facilities, etc. that many people have talked about. I won\u2019t go into detail about these, as there are other people on the Internet who have said so. There are still a few points that everyone needs to pay attention to, which is the issue of “balance”. The balance between the present and the future, the balance between what is already there and what needs to be built, the balance of driving forces. The first is the balance between the present and the future. We are currently facing the challenge of insufficient work stations. But five years later, ten years later, and twenty years later, Yuan Xin and Xingwang have completed the network and entered the network repair stage. my country’s rocket thrust has increased significantly (on November 5, 2022, China’s largest thrust independently developed by the Sixth Academy of Aerospace Science and Technology The first complete test run of the liquid rocket engine was a complete success. The engine is designed to have a thrust of 500 tons. Our material research and development capabilities are also constantly improving. The test and launch cycle will definitely be improved in the future. The situation at that time will definitely be different from now. How to strike a balance should also be considered in the decision-making process. The second is the balance between what is already there and what is to be built. At present, the construction of stations one and two of the Hainan Commercial Space Launch Site has been completed and has launch capabilities. If there is a demand for insufficient launch stations in the future, continuing to build launch stations at the Hainan Commercial Space Launch Site and building launch stations elsewhere is also an important aspect that needs to be considered in the decision-making process. The last thing is the balance of driving forces. You can understand this by yourself by referring to the differences between Xiangshan, Yangjiang and Wenchang.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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