China’s Rocket Start-Ups Go Small in Age of ‘Shoebox’ Satellites
Hello reader!
It follows one article published on the day (04/26), in
the website ‘Reuters Graphics’, announcing that China’s rocket startups go
small in age of ‘shoebox’ satélites.
Duda Falcão
RACE FOR SPACE
China’s Rocket Start-Ups Go Small
in Age of ‘Shoebox’ Satellites
By Ryan Woo
Published April 26, 2019
LONGKOU, CHINA - During initial tests of their 8.1-metre
(27-foot) tall reusable rocket, Chinese engineers from LinkSpace, a start-up
led by China’s youngest space entrepreneur, used a Kevlar tether to ensure its
safe return. Just in case.
But when the Beijing-based company’s prototype, called
NewLine Baby, successfully took off and landed last week for the second time in
two months, no tether was needed.
The 1.5-tonne rocket hovered 40 metres above the ground
before descending back to its concrete launch pad after 30 seconds, to the
relief of 26-year-old chief executive Hu Zhenyu and his engineers — one of whom
cartwheeled his way to the launch pad in delight.
LinkSpace, one of China’s 15-plus private rocket
manufacturers, sees these short hops as the first steps towards a new business
model: sending tiny, inexpensive satellites into orbit at affordable prices.
Demand for these so-called nanosatellites — which weigh
less than 10 kilogrammes (22 pounds) and are in some cases as small as a
shoebox — is expected to explode in the next few years. And China’s rocket
entrepreneurs reckon there is no better place to develop inexpensive launch
vehicles than their home country.
Photo by Reuters/Jason Lee
“For suborbital clients, their focus will be on
scientific research and some commercial uses. After entering orbit, the
near-term focus (of clients) will certainly be on satellites,” Hu said.
In the near term, China envisions massive constellations
of commercial satellites that can offer services ranging from high-speed
internet for aircraft to tracking coal shipments. Universities conducting
experiments and companies looking to offer remote-sensing and communication
services are among the potential domestic customers for nanosatellites.
A handful of U.S. small-rocket companies are also
developing launchers ahead of the expected boom. One of the biggest, Rocket
Lab, has already put 25 satellites in orbit.
No private company in China has done that yet. Since
October, two — LandSpace and OneSpace — have tried but failed, illustrating the
difficulties facing space start-ups everywhere.
SPACE CAPITAL
Amount of capital raised by private companies in China’s
space industry in 2018
Source: FutureAerospace
The Chinese companies are approaching inexpensive
launches in different ways. Some, like OneSpace, are designing cheap,
disposable boosters. LinkSpace’s Hu aspires to build reusable rockets that
return to Earth after delivering their payload, much like the Falcon 9 rockets
of Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
“If you’re a small company and you can only build a very,
very small rocket because that’s all you have money for, then your profit
margins are going to be narrower,” said Macro Caceres, analyst at U.S.
aerospace consultancy Teal Group.
“But if you can take that small rocket and make it
reusable, and you can launch it once a week, four times a month, 50 times a
year, then with more volume, your profit increases,” Caceres added.
Eventually LinkSpace hopes to charge no more than 30 million
yuan ($4.48 million) per launch, Hu told Reuters.
That is a fraction of the $25 million to $30 million
needed for a launch on a Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems Pegasus, a
commonly used small rocket. The Pegasus is launched from a high-flying aircraft
and is not reusable.
Photo by Reuters/Jason Lee
ROCKET LAB - A retired RLV-T3 reusable rocket sits in
LinkSpace’s development site in Longkou, Shandong province.
|
NEED FOR CASH
LinkSpace plans to conduct suborbital launch tests using
a bigger recoverable rocket in the first half of 2020, reaching altitudes of at
least 100 kilometres, then an orbital launch in 2021, Hu told Reuters.
The company is in its third round of fundraising and
wants to raise up to 100 million yuan, Hu said. It had secured tens of millions
of yuan in previous rounds.
After a surge in fresh funding in 2018, firms like
LinkSpace are pushing out prototypes, planning more tests and even proposing
operational launches this year.
Last year, equity investment in China’s space start-ups
reached 3.57 billion yuan ($533 million), a report by Beijing-based investor
FutureAerospace shows, with a burst of financing in late 2018.
That accounted for about 18 percent of global space
start-up investments in 2018, a historic high, according to Reuters
calculations based on a global estimate by Space Angels. The New York-based
venture capital firm said global space start-up investments totalled $2.97
billion last year.
“If you can take that small rocket and make it
reusable, and you can launch it once a week, four times a month, 50 times a
year, then with more volume, your profit increases.
MACRO CACERES
Teal Group analyst”
“Costs for rocket companies are relatively high, but as
to how much funding they need, be it in the hundreds of millions, or tens of
millions, or even just a few million yuan, depends on the company’s stage of
development,” said Niu Min, founder of FutureAerospace.
FutureAerospace has invested tens of millions of yuan in
LandSpace, based in Beijing.
Like space-launch startups elsewhere in the world, the
immediate challenge for Chinese entrepreneurs is developing a safe and reliable
rocket.
Proven talent to develop such hardware can be found in
China’s state research institutes or the military; the government directly
supports private firms by allowing them to launch from military-controlled
facilities.
But it’s still a high-risk business, and one unsuccessful
launch might kill a company.
“The biggest problem facing all commercial space
companies, especially early-stage entrepreneurs, is failure” of an attempted
flight, Liang Jianjun, chief executive of rocket company Space Trek, told
Reuters. That can affect financing, research, manufacturing and the team’s
morale, he added.
Video by Reuters/Thomas Suen and
photos by
Reuters/Jason Lee
Space Trek is planning its first suborbital launch by the
end of June and an orbital launch next year, said Liang, who founded the
company in late 2017 with three other former military technical officers.
Despite LandSpace’s failed Zhuque-1 orbital launch in
October, the Beijing-based firm secured 300 million yuan in additional funding
for the development of its Zhuque-2 rocket a month later.
In December, the company started operating China’s first
private rocket production facility in Zhejiang province, in anticipation of
large-scale manufacturing of its Zhuque-2, which it expects to unveil next
year.
Photo by Reuters/Aly Song
SMALL PAYLOAD - SpaceTy engineers test one of its
satellites
that weighs only 10 kilograms. The satellite maker, based in
Hunan
province, has launched a dozen satellites so far.
|
STATE COMPETITION
China’s state defence contractors are also trying to get
into the low-cost market.
In December, the China Aerospace Science and Industry
Corp (CASIC) successfully launched a low-orbit communication satellite, the
first of 156 that CASIC aims to deploy by 2022 to provide more stable broadband
connectivity to rural China and eventually developing countries.
The satellite, Hongyun-1, was launched on a rocket
supplied by the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp (CASC), the
nation’s main space contractor.
FINANCING BY FUNDING ROUND
Total amount of capital raised by private firms in
China’s space industry in 2018, by type of funding round. The firms include
rocket companies that launch or manufacture satellites.
Source: FutureAerospace
In early April, the China Academy of Launch Vehicle
Technology (CALVT), a subsidiary of CASC, completed engine tests for its
Dragon, China’s first rocket meant solely for commercial use, clearing the path
for a maiden flight before July.
The Dragon, much bigger than the rockets being developed
by private firms, is designed to carry multiple commercial satellites.
At least 35 private Chinese companies are working to
produce more satellites.
Spacety, a satellite maker based in southern Hunan
province, plans to put 20 satellites in orbit this year, including its first
for a foreign client, chief executive Yang Feng told Reuters.
The company has only launched 12 on state-produced
rockets since the company started operating in early 2016.
“When it comes to rocket launches, what we care about
would be cost, reliability and time,” Yang said.
($1 = 6.7032 Chinese yuan renminbi)
Photo by Reuters/Jason Lee
TOUCH DOWN - LinkSpace’s reusable rocket RLV-T5
lands back to the site during a test launch in April.
|
RACE FOR $PACE
China’s rocket start-ups go small in age of ‘shoebox’ satélites
Reporting by Ryan Woo
Design and graphics by Christine Chan
Photography by Jason Lee and Aly Song
Videography by Thomas Suen
Additional reporting by Beijing newsroom
Editing by Gerry Doyle
Source: Website of the Reuters Graphics - https://graphics.reuters.com
Comentário:
Pois é leitor, trago essa notícia para incentivar uma vez mais o nosso
Ministro- Astronauta “Operário” Marcos Pontes a acelerar os contatos do governo
com as stsrtups espaciais brasileiras. Não há mais tempo a perder, temos de
acelerar esse processo ou ficaremos muito atrás do que já estamos. Temos competência
e profissionais motivados e preparados para fazer a diferença, bastando para
isso que sejam cobrados e desafiados à apresentarem o que são capazes de
realizar. Três startups espaciais brasileiras já anunciaram que testarão foguetes
conceitos ainda esse ano (Acrux, PION Labs e VSAT Space Program), além da CLC
Consultoria ter disponibilizado ao mercado uma plataforma inercial para
lançadores de satélites. Pois é ministro, a corrida esta lançada e o país
dependerá muito de sua ação dinâmica para que possamos participar deste
importante mercado.
Absolutamente correto. Obrigado pela postagem.
ResponderExcluir