In recent years, Hubei has taken the lead in deploying the commercial aerospace industry in central my country, and the “China Star Valley” in Wuhan is poised to take off.
Today we will learn about: China’s top 10 commercial aerospace industry clusters in 2025—Hubei Wuhan Commercial Satellite Industry Cluster.
1
Wuhan, Hubei—the birthplace of commercial remote sensing in China
The development of Wuhan’s commercial aerospace industry mainly relies on the city’s three major aerospace technology highlands: Aerospace Sanjiang Group, China Information Technology Group and Wuhan University. Among them: Aerospace Sanjiang, Science and Technology Rockets, Science and Technology Space and other affiliated units of the Aerospace Science and Industry Group signed contracts to settle in the Wuhan National Aerospace Industry Base in Xinzhou District, Wuhan in 2017, becoming the core area for the development of commercial aerospace in Wuhan, also known as the “China Star Valley”. China Information Technology Group was formed by the reorganization of the former Wuhan Post and Telecommunications Research Institute and the former Telecommunications Science and Technology Research Institute. It is one of the birthplaces of optical communications in China. Its subsidiaries FiberHome Communications and Datang Telecom are one of the main suppliers of China Star Network laser communications and on-board routing loads respectively. Wuhan University is the birthplace of China’s commercial remote sensing industry. The School of Surveying and Mapping of Wuhan University presided over the design of my country’s first civilian remote sensing satellite “Ziyu-3”, which increased the resolution of my country’s remote sensing satellites from 300 meters to 3-5 meters.
2
Industrial agglomeration
In recent years, the commercial aerospace market entities in Hubei Province have grown rapidly. By 2023, there will be 15 new enterprises above designated size and 16 “specialized, special and new” enterprises. Wuhan is the main gathering place for Hubei’s commercial aerospace industry. There are 1,808 registered commercial aerospace companies in the city, ranking sixth in the country.
3
Industrial layout
In terms of industrial layout, Wuhan will build a development pattern of “one core, two districts and multiple parks”. Among them, the first core refers to the Wuhan National Aerospace Industry Base as the core, focusing on the development, manufacturing and launch services of new launch vehicles, satellite platforms and payloads to create “China’s Star Valley”. The two zones are: Wuhan Airport Economic and Technological Development Zone, which focuses on core technology research on launch vehicles, satellite platforms and loads, and the development of key products and key components; Wuhan East Lake New Technology Development Zone focuses on the development of space information data acquisition, processing, and distribution with the Beidou industry as the core, and builds a national innovative industrial cluster for geospatial information and application services. Multi-park refers to the construction of “aerospace+” demonstration industrial parks in Wuhan Economic Development Zone, Jiang’an District, Huangpi District and other districts based on actual differentiated layout to promote the cluster development of characteristic extended industries. Currently, Wuhan has a total of 11 industrial parks of various types involving the commercial aerospace industry. Among them, the National Commercial Aerospace Industry Base in Xinzhou District, also called “China Star Valley”, is the main hosting area for Wuhan’s commercial aerospace industry and has 5 related industrial parks. Next is Optics Valley in Wuhan’s East Lake District, which has four related industrial parks.
4
Key companies
Wuhan has many key enterprises in the commercial aerospace field, which can be divided according to different industries:
Rocket overall enterprise: Science and Technology Rockets;
Overall spacecraft enterprises: Science and Technology Space, Aerospace Xingyun, Yuncheng Satellite;
Aerospace manufacturing companies: Aerospace Magnetoelectric (electromagnetic protection materials), FiberHome Communications (laser communication payload), Raycus Laser (laser sensor), Dawson Aerospace (intelligent manufacturing);
Satellite applications: Sinan Wanxiang (navigation equipment), Lide Space (remote sensing applications);
Satellite measurement and control: aerospace star control;
Supporting platform: Wuhan Tianyan (sea launch platform + recovery platform);
5
technological breakthrough
The School of Surveying and Mapping of Wuhan University is the birthplace of China’s remote sensing application technology. It has produced many experts in the remote sensing surveying and mapping industry and has made outstanding contributions in promoting the application of commercial remote sensing satellites in China.
Among them, Professor Wang Zhizhuo of Wuhan University is the main founder of the aerial photogrammetry and remote sensing disciplines in my country. His student, Professor Li Deren of Wuhan University, pioneered the weighted iterative method of deriving gross error positioning from posterior variance estimation, which is called “Li Deren’s method” by the international remote sensing community.
Wuhan University also presided over the design of China’s first civilian remote sensing satellite “Ziyuan No. 3”. This satellite adopted the error distinguishability theory and systematic error and gross error detection methods invented by Professor Li Deren, which improved the accuracy of my country’s remote sensing satellites from 300 meters to 3 to 5 meters, ushering in a new era of high-precision mapping of domestic satellites from domestic to global.
On September 24, 2024, the world’s first medical remote sensing scientific experimental satellite, led by Wuhan University, was successfully launched, filling the gap in remote sensing monitoring in the field of global health research, linking health, population and environmental data, quantifying the relationship between health-related variables and environmental risk factors, and conducting medical remote sensing application demonstrations.
6
policy support
According to incomplete statistics, Hubei Province and Wuhan City have launched a total of 10 industrial, financial, and talent policies at all levels to benefit the commercial aerospace industry, and established 3 related industry parent funds with a total scale of over 40 billion to support the rapid development of the commercial aerospace industry in Wuhan.
7
future development
In 2024, projects led by Wuhan-affiliated units won a total of 19 national science and technology awards, ranking second among cities in the country. Academician Li Deren won the country’s highest science and technology award; the added value of high-tech manufacturing increased by 23.7%, demonstrating amazing scientific and technological innovation vitality.
According to the “Hubei Province Breakthrough Development Commercial Aerospace Action Plan (2024-2028)” issued by the General Office of the Hubei Provincial Government, Hubei will develop the ability to develop 60 launch vehicles and 500 commercial satellites per year, cultivate more than 50 specialized and special new enterprises, and cultivate a commercial aerospace output value of more than 100 billion. As Hubei’s commercial aerospace economic and technological highland, Wuhan will be an important carrier for Hubei’s future construction of the commercial aerospace industry.
With its profound accumulation in the fields of optical communications, satellite remote sensing, aerospace manufacturing, and cloud computing, Wuhan, located in central China, is bound to become an industrial link connecting the commercial aerospace economy in the north and south of China in the future.
