Advertisement
Space
TechTech Trends

To compete with Elon Musk’s Starlink, China’s private space ventures must work with their state-owned competitors

  • In an effort to catch up with Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite internet, China established a new state-owned group to coordinate industry resources
  • Private rocket and satellite makers bring innovation to China’s state-led space efforts, but they also face competition from state-owned giants

Reading Time:4 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
4
A render of a SpaceX Starlink satellite in orbit. China is using government funding and policy in a race to match Starlink’s satellite internet offerings, but private enterprises may find it difficult to compete with state-owned enterprises. Photo: SpaceX
Xinmei Shen
When Xie Tao was working at a Chinese state-owned space company in the early 2010s, he had an epiphany: if he did not start his own company soon, he would miss his chance.

He and his colleagues were inspired by Google’s Lunar X Prize, a competition for privately funded teams to be the first to land a lunar rover on the Moon. Since paying a state-run company to launch the rover would have been too expensive – and there were no private options – they had to give up before they could even start.

“I felt like someone in China must start this, even though at the time it still wasn’t recognised by most people, and there weren’t clear policies,” said Xie, founder and CEO of Chinese commercial satellite start-up Commsat. “By the time we realised it was the right time, it might have been too late.”

While Elon Musk’s satellite internet venture Starlink, run by SpaceX, already boasts nearly 70,000 simultaneous users, China remains years away from launching a similar service. And if private companies want to thrive, they will have to contend with state-owned giants.
SpaceX launched its ninth batch of Starlink communication satellites atop its Falcon 9 rocket on June 13, 2020, from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Launch Complex 40. A four minute time exposure of the launch viewed from Lori Wilson Park in Cocoa Beach. (Malcolm Denemark/Florida Today via AP)
SpaceX launched its ninth batch of Starlink communication satellites atop its Falcon 9 rocket on June 13, 2020, from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Launch Complex 40. A four minute time exposure of the launch viewed from Lori Wilson Park in Cocoa Beach. (Malcolm Denemark/Florida Today via AP)

Two such companies – China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) and China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation (CASIC) – have been planning their own constellations named Hongyan, Hongyun and Xingyun. The three projects combined plan to launch more than 500 satellites into low-Earth orbit.

Advertisement