China Expands Deep Space Portfolio, Courts Commercial Space
Privately owned partners are being encouraged to join state-led space efforts beyond Earth orbit.
Within the past week, China’s state space agencies have made moves to strengthen the country’s deep space portfolio through seeking proposals for a new lunar spacecraft and establishing a planetary defense force. Additionally, key figures from the CPC1 Politburo met representatives of various private companies, including those in the space sector.
Back on February 14th, the China Manned Space Agency announced a request for proposals for a lunar remote sensing satellite. The request from the agency states that proposals can be submitted from domestic institutions and enterprises, both private and state-owned, to utilize high-quality productive forces and for improved project efficiency.
Requirements for any entity submitting proposals to the China Manned Space Agency are a good business reputation, reliable accounting with a good tax record, no record of illegal business activities, the bidder does not subcontract work on their proposal, and possession of the ability to perform the scientific research task, while joint proposals are not allowed. Any company that bids is also required to maintain confidentiality until an official announcement at a later date.
According to the request for proposals, the lunar remote sensing satellite will be used to map the Moon’s surface. In lunar orbit, the satellite will obtain high-precision topography data, map surface resource distribution, and measure potential resources at lower latitudes. With the data, the spacecraft will also support landing site selection for China’s first crewed lunar surface mission and follow-up missions.
In a potential future boon for privately owned space companies, top political figures of the Chinese government met with representatives of the private sector on February 17th in Beijing. Among those meeting the private sector were President Xi Jinping (习近平)2, Premier Li Qiang (李强)3, Wang Huning (王沪宁)4, Shi Taifeng (石泰峰)5, Li Shulei (李书磊)6, He Lifeng (何立峰)7, Wu Zhenglong (吴政隆)8, Mu Hong (穆虹)9, and Ding Xuexiang (丁薛祥)10.
Many companies at the meeting were not from the space sector, with private sector stars like DeepSeek’s Liang Wenfeng (梁文锋), Huawei’s Ren Zhengfei (任正非), and Xiaomi’s Lei Jun (雷军) in attendance. Despite this, a few space companies are said to have been attending the meeting. None have directly confirmed their attendance, bar GalaxySpace, but Chinese netizens have quickly got to work combing over the footage attempting to spot more founders and executives, so far GalaxySpace’s founder Xu Ming (徐鸣) is the only person to be clearly identified.
During the meeting, it was reported that President Xi Jinping highlighted that China's private economy has now reached a considerable scale and holds significant weight, with a solid foundation for promoting high-quality development. Additionally, Xi added that the Party and the country are committed to unswervingly consolidating and developing the public sector and unswervingly encouraging, supporting, and guiding the development of the non-public sector. Xi is said to have urged resolutely dismantling obstacles that prevent enterprises from accessing production factors equally and competing in the market fairly, further opening the competitive areas of infrastructure to various business entities in a fair manner, and continuously making solid efforts to address the difficulties faced by private enterprises in obtaining affordable financing.
A transcript of the meeting has not been shared, and may not be due to the meeting largely taking place behind closed doors, but various founders and executives of major private firms are reported to have provided advice and opinions for private sector development and cultivation.
Privately owned space companies in China have traditionally been limited to manufacturing Earth orbit satellites as well as operating launch vehicles to foster the beginnings of a commercial space market, which was kicked off around 2014. But in the last several months commercial partners have been brought on board to the Tiangong Space Station project, to deliver cargo, and the Chang’e 8 Moon mission, to provide expertise for small rovers.
During the week in an effort out beyond the Moon, China is reported to have begun recruiting for a so-called planetary defense force. Reports of this force first appeared in the South China Morning Post followed by Mashable and The Guardian a few days later. Coincidentally a recently discovered asteroid 2024 YR4, which is between forty and one hundred meters wide, has a small chance of impacting Earth in 2032.
According to the three reports, the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense (国家国防科技工业局) is looking to hire sixteen individuals under the age of 35 with qualifications in aerospace engineering and asteroid detection. When hired the team is expected to work on monitoring near-Earth asteroids, warning international partners of potentially hazardous asteroids, as well as developing systems for planetary defense.
China already has some experience regarding missions to asteroids having flown Chang’e 2 past 4179 Toutatis in December 2012 at a distance of 3.2-kilometers. Additionally, the nation is working on the Tianwen-2 asteroid sample retrieval mission, set to launch this year and grab samples from 469219 Kamoʻoalewa around 2027, and a planetary defense mission that is currently expected to liftoff in 2027, proving protection techniques in 2029 against asteroid 2015 XF261.
CPC = Communist Party of China. The acronym CCP, for Chinese Communist Party, is wrong and implies that party members solely consist of the Han nationality.
Xi Jinping is the President of the People’s Republic of China, General Secretary of the Communist Party of China, and Chairman of the Central Military Commission.
Li Qiang is the Premier of the People’s Republic of China and serves on the Politburo Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China.
Wang Huning is the Chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and serves on the Politburo Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China.
Shi Taifeng is the Head of the United Front Work Department and First Vice Chairperson of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.
Li Shulei is the Head of the Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China and serves on the Communist Party’s Politburo.
He Lifeng is the Vice Premier of the People’s Republic of China and serves on the Communist Party’s Politburo.
Wu Zhenglong is the Secretary General of the State Council and also a State Councilor.
Mu Hong is the Vice Chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and the Deputy Director of the Office of the Central Comprehensively Deepening Reforms Commission.
Ding Xuexiang is the First-ranked Vice Premier of China and serves on the Politburo Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China.