Commercial Space Industry Takes Off: Projected Market Size Exceeds $2.3 Trillion in 2023

As a new engine for growth, commercial space was written into the "Government Work Report" for the first time this year. Encouraged by policies, many regions have introduced plans, deployed a batch of major projects, and accelerated the improvement of industrial layout. According to statistics from the China Aerospace Industry Quality Association, from 2015 to 2020, the value of China's commercial space industry increased from 376.42 billion yuan to trillions, with an average annual growth rate of 22%. It is expected that by 2024, the scale of China's commercial space market will exceed 2.3 trillion yuan.

Perfecting the layout

Recently, the reporter visited the Wenchang International Aerospace City in the Hainan Free Trade Port, where the Long March 8 series rocket test team is conducting testing tasks in the launch area assembly plant; within the high-tech zone, satellite R&D centers, aerospace science and innovation centers, and other major projects supporting commercial space launches are being accelerated, and are being put into use one after another.

"Relying on the advantageous resources of the Hainan Free Trade Port and the Wenchang Space Launch Site, we are accelerating the construction of Wenchang International Aerospace City, China's Commercial Aerospace Pioneering Demonstration Zone, Aerospace New Economic Model Zone, and International First-Class Commercial Aerospace Port 'One City, Two Zones, One Port'." Liu Chong, the mayor of Wenchang City in Hainan Province and the director of the Wenchang International Aerospace City Management Bureau, said that in the first half of this year, the aerospace city achieved a revenue of 10.78 billion yuan, tax revenue of 363 million yuan, and fixed asset investment of 3.855 billion yuan, respectively, a year-on-year increase of 25.9%, 5.5%, and 39.9%.

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At the beginning of this year, Shaanxi Province planned and deployed 34 provincial industrial key industrial chains including the aerospace industry, and recently released the "Shaanxi Province's Action Plan for Cultivating a Billion-Yuan-Level Spatiotemporal Information Industry Innovation Cluster", further increasing support. According to the development goals, Shaanxi Province will build a number of innovation platforms, build an intelligent spatiotemporal data production, convergence, supply, and application full-chain service system, focus on breaking through key spatiotemporal technologies, accelerate the improvement of industrial innovation capabilities, optimize and improve the industrial ecosystem, accelerate the expansion of industrial scale, and significantly increase international competitiveness.

Beijing is also accelerating the formation of new quality productive forces in commercial aerospace. At present, the commercial aerospace industry chain in Beijing covers the entire industry chain of rockets, satellites, ground stations and terminal equipment, and satellite application services, and is gradually stepping onto the fast track of development. Looking to the future, Beijing has a larger goal: to significantly enhance the innovation capabilities of commercial aerospace and significantly improve the industry level within 5 years; to build a globally influential commercial aerospace innovation and development highland within 10 years...

Innovative breakthroughs

In recent years, commercial aerospace companies in the jurisdiction of the Xi'an Aerospace Base have continuously made breakthroughs in technological innovation. The Aerospace Grand Map "Nuwa Constellation" project has filled the domestic InSAR satellite application market gap; Xi'an Huanyu Satellite Measurement and Control and Data Application Co., Ltd. has participated in dozens of launch measurement and control tasks such as "one arrow 22 stars" and "one arrow 41 stars", and the number of satellites it manages has exceeded 200... These satellites directly serve all walks of life in the national economy, and a hundred billion yuan-level aerospace industry cluster is accelerating the formation.

Beijing's commercial rocket companies have also been setting new launch records in recent years. At the end of August this year, the Beijing Yizhuang enterprise Xinghe Power Aerospace implemented the launch mission of the Guoshen Star One maritime launch type (Yao San), successfully sending 6 satellites into a sun-synchronous orbit.

Since April this year, Wenchang International Aerospace City has cooperated with the National Space Administration and aerospace research institutes to participate in the launch mission of the Shijian-19 satellite, successfully sending 50 kilograms of space breeding payloads selected by Hainan Province into space.Optimization of Services

"When we established our presence in Xi'an Aerospace Base in 2019, satellite internet was still a very new concept. It took considerable courage for Xi'an Aerospace Base to support innovative enterprises like us," said Yang Chaoyue, General Manager of Galaxy Aerospace (Xi'an) Technology Co., Ltd. Recently, the company's independently developed Lingxi 03 satellite was successfully launched into its designated orbit, marking a complete success for the launch mission.

In recent years, Xi'an National Civil Aerospace Industry Base has been continuously deploying industry and innovation chains, serving key aerospace projects well, driving the aggregation of the aerospace industry, actively building aerospace characteristic industry clusters, and encouraging "industry leaders" to play a leading role. It has provided focused support for supporting enterprises with R&D capabilities, enhancing the local enterprises' ability to participate in the aerospace industry chain; and has built cooperation and exchange platforms to help enterprises improve their qualification capabilities.

At present, Hainan Wenchang International Aerospace City has taken over 167 delegated approval powers from the province and city. By creating an integrated service platform, deepening the reform of project approval systems, and establishing a full-process assistance service model, it has reduced the number of procedures in the entire chain, achieving online processing and one-time completion, and continuously stimulating the vitality of business entities. At the same time, it has promoted the landing of a billion-yuan-level industrial fund, which not only provides strong financial support for enterprise development but also lays a solid foundation for the long-term development of the industry.

This year, Beijing Yizhuang officially released the "Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area on Building a Globally Influential Commercial Aerospace Industry High Ground Measures," aiming to accelerate the development of China's main commercial aerospace aggregation. To help enterprises "pursue dreams among the stars," Yizhuang has established a special team to serve commercial aerospace enterprises and launched the commercial aerospace "Sky-Reaching Plan," creating an aerospace block and Beijing Rocket Street commercial aerospace common scientific research and production base, etc.