Aero & Space Weekly News Round-Up - Ep.17 (18th - 24th Jan. 2021)

Hello and welcome to another episode of the Dongfang Hour China Aero/Space News Roundup! Without further ado, the news update from the week of 18 - 24 January.

1) CASIC Announced Some New Details on their Satellite Factory
China Daily, among others, reported that CASIC’s satellite factory in Wuhan had completed construction, and that it would start manufacturing satellites in March. An impressive feat for anywhere, this is particularly impressive given that 1 year ago, Wuhan was in the very beginnings of the Coronavirus pandemic, and would be on lockdown for more than 1 month.

The factory was designed and built in 429 days, according to Zou Guangbao of CASIC Space Engineering Development Company, and will eventually manufacture 240 satellites per year. The article specifically mentions CASIC’s Hongyun constellation of broadband satellites, a somewhat surprising development given the widely-held belief that China will announce/is actively planning a larger broadband constellation. Plausibly, Hongyun could be one layer/shell of such a constellation.

2) Announcement of the (mysterious?) Tianxun IoT constellation
On January 21, the opening ceremony of the Jinyi Industry-City Integration zone took place in the subdistrict (“town”) of Luodian, which is in the Northern district of Baoshan in Shanghai.
Most interesting at this event was the launch of the Tianxun project, an IoT satellite constellation composed of 72 satellites, and which should be launched and completed over the next 3 years. The development and the launch of the first test satellite would take place in 2021. Beyond the space segment, the Jinyi Industry Zone is planning to host an ecosystem combining the space-based IoT with cloud computing, big data, as well as the design & product of satellites, ground terminals; aiming at both industry and B2C applications.

With the test and launch of the first satellite taking place this year, it is very likely that the Tianxun IoT project will rely on existing satellite manufacturing capabilities.

3) Jiuzhou Yunjian Announced a Round of Funding
Jiuzhou Yunjian announced a round of funding earlier this week, which is likely the first round of funding by a Chinese commercial space company in 2021. The company did not specify the amount of money in the funding round, but mentioned several investors, notably Zhongguancun Aerospace Startup Development Fund (lead investor), Yunhe Capital, Zhongguancun Development Seed Fund, and Ourui Capital. The involvement of 2x Zhongguancun Development funds is a clear indication of the degree of support being given by the city government towards space startups.

4) Chinese Mars Rover Naming Competition
On January 20th, China’s lunar and space exploration center announced that the name of China’s Mars rover on-board the Tianwen-1 spacecraft was open for a naming contest. Tianwen-1 is China’s first solo Mars exploration mission, consisting of an orbiter, a lander and a rover. 
The naming contest opened on January 20th, and gave netizens the choice between 10 names. These 10 names were based on an initial call for names that took place in the August of 2020 (during the period of the Mars launch window). A committee then selected the 10 best-suited names, which are up for vote.
The deadline is until February 28th, after which the jury collects the votes, deliberates, and reveals the name (at an undefined date, likely in March).

Thank you for your kind attention, and look forward to seeing you next time! 

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