China's commercial space startups challenging Western competitors: report

A Bloomberg report released on Thursday said that several of China's spaceflight startups are posing a growing challenge to the current industry leaders. The report said that China's space start-ups have ambitions to compete with Elon Musk's SpaceX, Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin, and Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic, which currently dominate the global commercial spaceflight industry.

A screenshot of Bloomberg's report. [Screenshot: China Plus]

Three startups are mentioned in the report: Landspace Technology, Interstellar Glory Space Technology, and One Space Technology. The three Beijing-based firms were founded between 2015 and 2016, and each of them is said to have raised 500 to 800 million yuan (72 to 115 million U.S. dollars) from investors. According to the report, Landspace opened a facility this year that can produce 15 liquid-fueled rockets and 200 engines annually; Interstellar Glory Space sent three test satellites into space aboard a solid-fuel rocket this year; and One Space launched two suborbital rockets this year and plans to reach orbit by the end of the year.

The report attributed the success of these companies to a more open commercial spaceflight market. It cites the Space Foundation in Colorado Springs, which said that these startups are receiving funding from China-based venture capitalists and private equity investors. The report also said that the firms can rely on the expertise of scientists from China's manned space program.

One Space becomes the first private company in China to launch a commercial rocket on May 17, 2018. [File photo: VCG]

Blaine Curcio, the founder of Orbital Gateway Consulting in Hong Kong, was quoted in the report as saying that although most rocketeers in China initially concentrate on the emerging demand for small, low-altitude devices, they cannot be kept from “competing with SpaceX from a tech perspective.”

According to Beijing-based investment institution Future Aerospace, more than 60 private companies in China have entered the commercial space industry over the past three years, following a government policy issued in 2015 to encourage private space enterprises. China is aiming to become a global aerospace power by 2030, Xu Dazhe, the director of the China National Space Administration, said in 2016.