Research on the Influence of China's Commercial Spaceflight on the Economic and Social Development of the Regions Along the Belt and Road

Abstract

As China's commercial spaceflight industry develops rapidly, an increasing number of innovative commercial satellite plans have emerged. Especially the innovative projects represented by “Hongyan” communications constellation, “SuperView-1” commercial remote sensing satellite constellation, “Tiange” gravitational-wave detection minisatellites by Tsinghua University, etc., are gradually leading the development trend of commercial spaceflight for the regions along the Belt and Road. By conducting research on the development status and the future development plans of the commercial spaceflight technologies of China and countries along the Belt and Road, this article finds out that there exists a huge discrepancy between the levels of commercial spaceflight of the aforementioned regions, with China, Russia, and India ranked the top-tiers in commercial spaceflight; when considering the development potentials, China possesses the most powerful commercialization level. In addition, starting from the 4 major application areas of communication, navigation, remote sensing, and scientific experiments, this article systemically analyzes the changes to be brought by the innovative development of China's commercial spaceflight on the countries of the regions along the Belt and Road and their influences on economy, transportation, science and technology, and other social aspects. From the level of the systematic scientific thoughts of Qian Xuesen, this article puts forward a development strategy for the integration of commercial spaceflight in the regions along the Belt and Road. By establishing different forms of commercial spaceflight cooperation organizations or enterprises, it aims to expand the participation methods and contents of the countries along the Belt and Road, push forward low-cost launches and wide applications of innovative applied satellite technologies, improve the construction level of aerospace infrastructure in the region along the Belt and Road, so as to promote the joint development of the societies and economies of various countries and build a community with shared future for mankind.

Introduction

Since Space X successfully recovered the Falcon 9 rocket, the pattern of the world's space industry has been stirred up, and nations, including China, have recognized the significant cost reductions and service efficiency improvements brought by commercial space. In 2015, the Chinese government issued “The State Plan for Medium and Long-Term Development of Civil Space Infrastructure (2015–2025),” to encourage commercial space and promote the participation of social capital in the construction and development of civil space infrastructure. Under the stimulus of such policy, a large number of commercial rocket launching companies and small satellite companies have consecutively emerged in China. At the same time, the traditional aerospace enterprises have also made some changes, such as setting up commercial companies and conducting commercial space business independently, which have quickly promoted the development of China's space industry and brought noticeable changes to people's lives.

Countries in the region of “The Belt and Road,” especially China, have achieved remarkable achievements in the field of commercial space in recent years, which is constantly exerting influence on the lifestyles of people in China and surrounding areas. By analyzing the development of space industry of China in recent years and the existing cooperation projects with “The Belt and Road” regions, this article discusses the positive impacts of China's commercial space on the economic and social aspects brought about by the development of “The Belt and Road” regions. This article proposes how to combine the development of China's space industry and the development of other countries' aerospace, how to achieve integrative development, and how to promote mutual development from the perspective of Qian Xuesen's system of scientific thought.

Research Methods

For complex system problems, Qian Xuesen's system scientific thought is very effective.¹ Qian Xuesen unites the method of the reduction theory with the method of the complete body theory in a dialectical way and decomposes the system starting with the whole of the system and then synthesizes and integrates in the whole of the system to research and solve the problem. This method is used to study the objective world from the perspective of the whole and the part, the local and the global, and the hierarchical relationship.

This article adopted Qian Xuesen's system scientific thought as a guide to comprehensively analyze the development situation of commercial space of major countries along “The Belt and Road,” to compare the characteristics and advantages in various countries. Proposals for the future development of commercial space in “The Belt and Road” regions were made from the overall system perspective. Integrative development strategies were proposed and feasible cooperation strategies given. These are based on the analysis of impact to countries in “The Belt and Road” regions as well as the China's commercial space activities in launching, communication, remote sensing, and navigation.

Status Analysis of Commercial Space

“The Belt and Road” region covers Asia–Pacific region, Eurasia region, the Middle East region, and Africa region, including 65 countries and regions, and among them most are emerging economies and developing countries, whose economic development is on the rise and the potential of its commercial space market is huge.

The many mountains and deserts along the “New Silk Road Economic Belt” leads to strong market demands for remote sensing, navigation, and satellite communication in order to facilitate tourism and natural resource utilization in this area with complex topography and inconvenient transportation. Owing to the large number of islands and busy shipping traffic along the “21st Century Maritime Silk Road,” there are significant demands for marine satellite mobile communication, satellite Internet, navigation and location, and meteorological disaster prediction and other aspects.

From the perspective of industrial development, there is a large gap in terms of the development level of commercial space in “The Belt and Road” regions. Russia and China are in the first echelon, with independent whole series rocket launching and space load development capabilities; India is in the second echelon, with certain rocket launching and space load development capacities; Turkey, Singapore, and other countries are in the third echelon, which do not have independent rocket launching capability, but have considerable strength in satellite payload research. However, more countries are at a comparatively low level in the field of commercial space, lacking the ability to independently develop rockets or satellites, and need to purchase related products or services from abroad.

The number of satellites orbiting Earth in the “Belt and Road” area is given in² Table 1.

Table 1.

The Number of Satellites Orbiting Earth in the “Belt and Road” Area

Country	Payload	Country	Payload
Algeria	5	Malaysia	5
China	299	Nigeria	4
Czech	2	Pakistan	3
Egypt	2	Russia	150
India	60	Saudi Arabia	13
Indonesia	9	Singapore	9
Iran	1	Thailand	5
Iraq	1	Turkey	8
Israel	12	United Arab Emirates	8
Kazakhstan	7	Vietnam	4

Current Situation of Russia's Commercial Space

Russia has provided launch transportation services for the International Space Station, the United States, the European Union, and other countries for a long time through the series of “Soyuz” and “Proton” rockets, but less involved in commercial satellite applications. Over the past 3 years, more than half of Russian rocket launching missions have been for international launch services, especially for space station astronauts transportation service. Owing to economic sanctions and the launch accident of “Proton” rocket, the number of launches has decreased by nearly 50% compared with that from 2010 to 2014. Before the new U.S. manned spacecrafts are officially put into use, Russia is the only country that can provide commercial manned space launch services (Table 2).

Table 2.

Russian Commercial Space Launch Statistics (Past 5 Years)

	January–August 2018	2017	2016	2015	2014
TL^*	9	19	17	26	34
TP^*	19	91	18	23	85
ICL^*	6	13	10	9	14
ICP^*	16	85	10	9	54
FL^*	S^*	S^/M^	S^*	S^*	S^*

FL^*, form of launch; ICL^*, international commercial launches; ICP^*, international commercial satellites; M^*, multiple main payload and piggyback; S^*, single main payload; TL^*, total launches; TP^*, total satellites.

Russia's GLONASS satellite navigation system, which currently has 26 satellites in orbit, can provide basic navigation services to the world.

Current Situation of India's Commercial Space

India's space sector mainly provides rocket launching services based on PSLV and GSLV. In the past 5 years, India has launched about 5 to 7 rockets per year, mainly providing satellite launch services in the form of carrying launches, with the loading microsatellites and nanosatellites developed for foreign countries. It is characterized by a large number of satellites with a small total weight, relatively low launch cost, but limited annual launch capacity. In 2017, India set a record for the largest number of launches with “one launch vehicle loaded with 104 satellites.”

In terms of satellite navigation, the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System has now completed the launch of 8 networking satellites, but has not been able to provide effective services due to the fault of atomic clocks on the satellite (Table 3).

Table 3.

Indian Commercial Space Launch Statistics (Past 5 Years)

	January–August 2018	2017	2016	2015	2014
TL^*	3	6	7	5	5
TP^*	33	137	34	18	9
ICL^*	1	2	2	3	1
ICP^*	30	133	27	15	5
FL^*	M^*	M^*	M^*	S^/M^	S^*

Current Situation of China's Commercial Space

There are mainly 2 types of commercial aerospace enterprises in China: one type is traditional enterprises represented by China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), which has established a number of commercial company platforms to undertake domestic and foreign rocket launching and satellite development tasks, including CHINAROCKET Co., Ltd. and China Spacesat Co., Ltd. The other is represented by the newly established private aerospace enterprises, including OneSpace, i-space, and Spacety. These enterprises rely on innovation of technology and business model to develop new products and quickly obtain financing.

Traditional commercial space

As of October 2017, the Long March rocket series provided commercial launching services 60 times, including 14 piggyback services. Twenty-two countries and regions were international customers of the Long March rocket series covering “The Belt and Road” regions including Southeast Asia, South Asia, West Africa, North Africa, Eastern Europe, and the South American region. It placed ten commercial satellites in orbit for international customers.³ Over the past five years, the rocket launching success rate has exceeded 95.7% (90 successful injections out of 94 launches) (Table 4).

Table 4.

China Commercial Space Launch Statistics (Past 5 Years)

	January–August 2018	2017	2016	2015	2014
TL^*	23	18	22	19	16
TP^*	55	33	38	45	20
ICL^*	3	3	3	2	3
ICP^*	7	3	4	2	3
FL^*	S^/M^	S^/M^	S^/M^	S^*	S^/M^

By the end of 2018, 18 third generation navigation satellites had been launched, which have taken the lead in providing accurate navigation services for “The Belt and Road” regions.

In the field of remote sensing satellites, there are a series of satellites such as “SuperView-1,” “CBERS,” and “Jilin-1,” which provide remote sensing data support for land resources survey, environmental monitoring, urban planning, road network design, crop estimation, and disaster prevention and reduction.

New commercial space

In China, >60 private enterprises have been involved in the commercial space industries in the last 3 years, especially in the upstream of the industrial chain represented by small satellite manufacturing and launching. From the perspective of investment and financing of commercial space enterprises, domestic private commercial space enterprises are generally in the initial stage, with the amount of financing in the level of millions of dollars. In 2017, 17 companies in the field of China's commercial space program received a total of $320 million in financing, more than 6 times the amount received in 2016.

Regarding commercial rocket launching, the “KZ-1” and “Long March-11” commercial solid rockets launched by the 2 major aerospace companies have achieved commercial launches of small satellites in the manner of “one launch vehicle loaded with multiple satellites.” One Space's “Chongqing Liangjiang Star” rocket and i-space's “Hyperbola-1S” rocket both have passed suborbital flight tests. In October 2018, LANDSPACE attempted their first orbital mission, using their “ZQ-1” launch vehicle. The Weila-1 television satellite failed to reach orbit due to a failure of the third stage.

In the aspect of small satellite networking, with the continuous miniaturization of satellite payloads and the reduction of launching costs, various commercial space companies have proposed a series of satellite constellation plans. “Jilin-1” remote sensing satellite and the “Zhuhai-1” commercial remote sensing satellite have already started to launch network and been officially put into operation. The “Xingyun” space-based Internet of Things constellation also launched its first experiment satellite in January 2017. The “Hongyan“ and “Hongyun“ communications constellation in low-Earth orbit launched their first experimental satellite in December 2018. Moreover, a number of scientifically tested small satellites have been successfully launched.

Among the private enterprises, Spacety mainly builds the “TY” series of scientific experimental small satellite platforms, providing a general scientific experimental platform for domestic and foreign research institutions and enterprises, equipped with customized loads. Commsat features scientific and educational brands, as well as “satellite+Internet” creative platform.

At present, the small satellite constellation plan proposed by China covers multiple fields, including Internet communication, Internet of Things communication, remote sensing observation, and scientific exploration, with the total number >1,200. The preliminary statistics are given in Table 5.

Table 5.

China Small Satellite Constellation Launching Plan

S/N	Constellation	Type	Total no. of satellites	Company
1	Hongyan	LEO communications constellation	324 (54 + 270)	China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation
2	Hongyun	LEO communications constellation	156	CASIC
3	Xingyun	LEO Internet of Things	80	CASIC
4	Jilin-1	Optical remote sensing	138	Chang Guang Satellite
5	Hainan	Optical/radar remote sensing	10	Institute of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth
6	Zhuhai-1	Optical remote sensing	16 (12 + 4)	Zhuhai Orbita Aerospace Science & Technology Co., Ltd.
7	Tianfu	Optical remote sensing	6	Harbin Institute of Technology
8	Shanxi-1	Optical remote sensing	256	Northwestern Polytechnical University
9	Tiange	Gravitational wave detection	24	Tsinghua University
10	JT50 Plan	LEO Internet of Things	72	Beijing Commsat Technology Development
11	Magpie	Optical remote sensing	132	Huaxun Fangzhou Co Ltd/ZeroG Lab

CASIC, China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation; LEO, low Earth orbit.

Influence of China's Commercial Spaceflight in the “Belt and Road” Area

The distribution of the influence of China's commercial spaceflights in the “Belt and Road” area is shown in Figure 1.

Fig. 1.

Distribution map of the influence of China's commercial spaceflights. Countries that have businesses of satellite launch and export with China.

Commercial Launch Services

In the last 5 years, China provided 9 commercial launch services and exported 7 satellites to the “Belt and Road” area, including 5 communication satellites, that is, “Laosat”, Belarus Communication Satellite No. 1, Alcomsat-1, Asia–Pacific No. 9, Asia–Pacific 6 C, Pakistan Remote Sensing Satellite (PRSS-1), and China France Oceanography Satellite (CFOSAT).

The whole satellite export business in the “Belt and Road” area of China is positively trending (Table 6).

Table 6.

Statistical List of Rocket Launch Services and Satellite Export Provided for the “Belt and Road” Area of China in the Last 5 Years

	2018	2017	2016	2015	2014
No. of launching commercial rockets provided	4	1	1	2	1
No. of commercial satellites exported	3	1	1	2	0
Name of exported satellites	PRSS-1	Alcomsat-1	Belintersat-1	Lao Sat-1	—
	AsiaSat 6C			Lao Sat-1
	AsiaSat 9
CFOSAT	AsiaSat 9

CFOSAT, China France Oceanography Satellite; PRSS-1, Pakistan Remote Sensing Satellite.

Chinese traditional rocket launching suppliers have publically begun to offer launch-to-global services to customers around the world. This provides more high-quality and low-cost transmitters for many countries in the “Belt and Road,” especially those with limited funds such as universities and newly established firm. Table 7 gives the latest list of launching services provided by China Great Wall Industry Corporation.⁴

Table 7.

Long March Launch Vehicle Piggyback Opportunities (from CGWIC)

No.	Slot	Launcher	Orbit	Margin (kg)
SSO opportunities
1	2019	LM-4B	920 km SSO	50
2	2019	LM-4B	628 km SSO	180
3	2019	LM-4B	645 km SSO	30
4	2019	LM-4C	745 km SSO	50
5	2019	LM-2D	500 km SSO	400
6	2019	LM-2C	700 km SSO	400
7	2019	LM-2C	533 km SSO	1000
8	2020	LM-8	517 km SSO	1800
9	LM-11 has several SSO opportunities for piggyback payloads
GTO opportunities
10	2019–2020	LM-3B	200–20,000 km MTO	Several 150

GTO, geostationary transfer orbit; SSO, sun synchronous orbit.

The small solid rockets represented by CZ-11 and KZ-1 have already provided rapid launch services for 3 times for domestic commercial users in China, all of which have been successful. It is expected that there will be 4–6 launching plans for domestic customers in 2018. The continued maturity of small launch vehicles can provide cheaper, faster, and more considerate launch services for countries in the “Belt and Road” area.

Currently, the parameters of the mainstream commercial rockets in the world are shown in Table 8. In the field of small satellite launches, China has a number of solid launch vehicles capable of providing rapid launch, and the launch cost is still decreasing. The cost of launch ranges from 10,000 to 30,000 U.S. dollars/kg. It is expected that the emission price can be reduced to at least 5,000 U.S. dollars/kg through further competitive development.

Table 8.

Parameters of Main Commercial Launch Vehicles

Rocket	Reference price ($ millions)	Payloads (tons)	Orbit
Falcon-9	62	8.3	GTO
Falcon Heavy	130	26.7	GTO
Atlas V	150	8.7	GTO
Delta IV Heavy	330	14.2	GTO
Ariane 5	175	10.5	GTO
CZ-3	60	5.5	GTO
CZ-11	15	0.5	SSO
KZ-1	7	0.3	LEO
Soyuz 2-1A	70	7	LEO
PSLV	32	1.75	SSO

Satellite Communications

In terms of communication satellite services, the markets in the “Belt and Road” area are dominated by 3 international satellite companies, Intelsat, SES, and Eutelsat,⁵ as well as regional satellite operators such as Arabsat, SPacecom, Turksat, RSCC, China Satcom, and Thaicom, a few countries purchase their own communication satellites. China has a relatively small share of the international market, according to public data displayed on the official website^6–9 (Table 9 and Figs. 2 and 3).

Fig. 2.

Intelsat communication satellite distribution. Intelsat communication satellite name and orbital position.

Fig. 3.

SES communication satellite distribution. SES communication satellite name and orbital position.

Table 9.

Statistical List of the Number of Communication Satellites

Operator	Country	In orbit	SCBRA
Intelsat	United States	54	39
SES	Luxembourg	59	27
Eutelsat	France	38	22
ARABSAT	Saudi Arabia	6	6
Yahsat	U.A.E.	3	3
Turksat	Turkey	4	4
RSCC	Russia	12	12
INSAT	India	16	16
Thaicom	Thailand	5	5
ASIASAT	China–United States	6	6
Spacecom	Israel	4	4
China Satcom	China	14	14

SCBRA, satellites that covering the “Belt and Road” area.

China Satcom Group is China's leading satellite communications operator and currently has 14 commercial communications satellites, including 10 ChinaSat series and 4 Asia–Pacific series satellites, Asia–Pacific No. 9, Asia–Pacific No. 5, No. 6, and No. 7, and ChinaSat No. 9A is distributed from west to east, achieving basic coverage of the area surrounding the Maritime Silk Road. From 2015 to 2017, China Satcom's operating income was RMB 2.39 billion, RMB 2.476 billion, and RMB 2.621 billion, of which the proportion of overseas business income was 38.91%, 41.58%, and 39.97%, respectively,¹⁰ and the share of the regional satellite communications market in the “Belt and Road” is relatively small (Fig. 4).

Fig. 4.

China Satcom communication satellite distribution. China Satcom communication satellite on orbit. Color images are available online.

In the next 5 years, China Satcom will launch 3 high-throughput broadband satellites with a total capacity of no less than 500 GBPS to achieve full coverage of China and the “ Belt and Road “ important areas. With the deployment of high-throughput satellites, the cost of satellite communications will be significantly reduced, and the number of regional users will also welcome a new peak.

In terms of satellite mobile communications, China launched the Tiantong No. 1, 01 Satellite in August 2016 and began construction of a global satellite mobile communication network. In July 2018, the system was put into commercial trial operation and currently serves the Chinese market. Tiantong No. 1, 02 and 03 satellites will launch the network by 2019, and will provide commercial mobile communication services for the “Belt and Road.”

In terms of satellite exports, China has successively delivered a total of 6 communication satellites to 5 countries in the “Belt and Road” area, and established their own satellite communication systems and terrestrial satellite application facilities for these countries to help their satellite communication industry develop and obtain operating income, changing the status quo of long-term rental of foreign satellites. Concrete analysis is given in Table 10.

Table 10.

Statistics of China Communication Satellites Exported to the “Belt and Road” Area

Time	Satellite	Country	Payload
2007/2011	NigComSat-1/1R	Nigeria	C-band: 4
			Ku-band: 14
			Ka-band: 8
			L-band: 2
2011	PakSat-1R	Pakistan	C-band: 12
2011	PakSat-1R	Pakistan	Ku-band: 18
2015	Lao Sat-1	Laos	C-band: 14
2015	Lao Sat-1	Laos	Ku-band: 8
2016	Belintersat-1	Belarus	C-band:20
2016	Belintersat-1	Belarus	Ku-band: 18
2017	Alcomsat-1	Algeria	C/L-band: 2
			Ku-band: 19
			Ka-band: 12

Analyses of social and economic benefits are as follows.

(1)

NigComSat-1/1R

The satellite covers >30 African countries, >500 million people, and can provide >150,000 communication-related employment opportunities. It is expected to save more than US$95 million in broadband costs per year for Nigeria.

The satellite enabled the construction of the broadcast television business center of NIGCOMSAT and launched DTH to provide commercial services of television broadcast to African users.

The satellite established a strategic partnership of mutual backup with Belarusian Communications Satellite.

(2)

PakSat-1R

The satellite promotes the development of Pakistan's telecommunications, broadcasting, broadband multimedia services, distance education, telemedicine, and other fields.

(3)

Lao Sat-1

The satellite ended the history of renting foreign satellites in Laos, providing broadcast services for 130 TV channels, serving the entire territory of Laos, and expanding the market to surrounding areas such as Thailand, Cambodia, and Myanmar.

Satellite communications and broadband services for Laos distance learning, telemedicine, emergency response, and government communications were provided by this satellite.

(4)

Belintersat-1

The satellite provided broadcast of television signal transmission, audio and video information, and data transmission services to Belarusian institutional users.

It provides a transponder rental service to foreign users.

(5)

Alcomsat-1

This satellite provides broadcast of television, emergency telecommunications, distance education, e-government, corporate communications, broadband access, and satellite-based navigation enhancement services in Algeria.

Satellite Navigation

Currently, the Beidou Navigation Satellite System is in a critical period of upgrading from second generation to third generation. In addition to real-time navigation, fast positioning, and precise timing functions, the system also has unique location reporting and short message communication functions, which are not available in other satellite navigation systems. At present, Beidou application products have been exported to >70 countries and regions, of which >30 countries and regions along the “Belt and Road” have been established.

In China, the annual output value of Beidou satellite navigation industry in 2017 exceeded RMB 200 billion, and the cumulative sales volume of domestic Beidou chips exceeded 65 million pieces. It is provided on >5 million operating vehicles, building the world's largest Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) vehicle networking platform.¹¹

In the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) region, the Beidou demonstration application projects were highlighted, including Myanmar's agricultural and forestry and land planning, ship monitoring and management in the Greater Mekong River Basin, Cambodian taxi dispatch monitoring, Laos precision agriculture and pest monitoring management, Thai agriculture and smart city construction, Brunei wisdom, tourism, Indonesian offshore integration applications and other fields. With the deepening cooperation between Beidou and ASEAN, Beidou is expected to provide better service to ASEAN in the fields of public safety, emergency disaster reduction, transportation, tourism, marine fishery, and high-precision surveying and mapping.

In South Asia, Pakistan National Location Service Network Phase I project, Chinese companies established 5 base stations and a processing center in Karachi, Pakistan, forming a regional Beidou positioning enhancement network covering the entire Karachi area, real-time positioning accuracy has reached 2 cm and a postprocessing accuracy of 5 mm. This provides Pakistan with real-time and reliable Beidou high-precision positioning service. Through this system, Pakistan can develop industry standards for the positioning and navigation industry, such as automatic data exchange format, integrated business integration, and effective analysis of integrated application solutions. The construction of the project has greatly promoted the development of the navigation industry in Pakistan and the all-round application and promotion.

In the Arab region, the first overseas Beidou/GNSS Center was established in 2018. It integrates functions such as publicity and demonstration, application demonstration, test evaluation, education and training, and joint research to promote the Beidou system in the Arab League and African countries.

Remote Sensing Application

In terms of remote sensing satellite exports, China provided Pakistan with in-orbit delivery of the Pakistan Remote Sensing Satellite “PRSS-1” in July 2018. The camera uses a resolution of >1 m and a width of >60 km. It can observe the pests and diseases of crops, accurately determine the degree of crop damage, and obtain a fast image acquisition of Pakistani soil in 2 days. “PRSS-1” is mainly used in Pakistan's agriculture, land, urban construction, environmental protection, disaster prevention and mitigation, infrastructure planning, etc. It is conducive to the sustainable development of the Pakistani economy and improving people's livelihood, and will also provide space remote sensing information service for the construction of the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor. In terms of personnel training, the Pakistani personnel deeply participated in satellite supervision. During the joint development process, China also conducted assembly, integration, and testing training and satellite ground monitoring and control stations and digital station operation training for >80 students from Pakistan, and developed talents in the field of remote sensing satellites in Pakistan.

In the field of remote sensing satellite applications, China has “Fengyun” series of meteorological satellites, “SuperView-1” and “CBERS” series of over-the-ground imaging satellites. “SuperView-1” satellites provide optical imaging products with 50 cm panchromatic and 2 m multispectral ground sample distance (GSD). They can revisit any target on the globe within 1 day. By March 2018, SuperView-1 01 and 02 had collected 156,664 scenes, ∼21,960,000 km² over the land of the Earth, with cloud <10%.

Scientific Experiments

Under the guidance of China's Lunar Exploration Program, space station construction, space environment probing and other tasks, China and the countries in the “Belt and Road” area carried out a series of effective cooperation.

In May 2018, “Longjiang No.2” satellite launched by “Magpie Bridge” moon probe relay satellite carried the lunar camera payload for Saudi Arabia, and carried out the high-definition imaging of the far side of the moon. The first earth–moon shadowgraph images are clear, and earth–moon proportion is coordinated, causing enthusiastic response in Saudi Arabia, and is selected as the world's most symbolic earth–moon images by BusinessInsider of the United States. This cooperation further improves the interpretation processing ability of moon data by Saudi Arabia, expanding the cooperation result of Chang'e 4 task of both parties, becoming the example for Sino-Arabian cooperation.

In February 2017, the “PSLV-C37” Carrier Rocket successfully launched, along with Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) “Jia-Yong Chen No.1” (DIDO-2), the first microgravity chemical science experimental satellite that was a joint project of Spacepharma of Israel, Spacety Research Institute, and Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Working Together to Achieve Integrative Development

The development issues of the commercial space industry in “The Belt and Road” regions concern multidisciplinary fields such as natural science and social science, which is a complex system engineering. From the perspective of Qian Xuesen's system scientific thought, the overall planning and local development should be integrated organically by using the method of system comprehensive integration, so that we could achieve the emerging effect of 1 + 1 > 2. In the development of commercial space, the countries and enterprises can not simply consider their own development, but also consider in the overall situation of “The Belt and Road” and even global commercial space development, achieving comprehensive and coordinated development. A variety of cooperation models can be adopted, such as the establishment of cooperative alliance, a package of overall delivery, and joint development and operation, to continuously deepen the links between commercial space enterprises in the region.

Cooperation Alliance for Integrative Development

In 2017, GNSS and LBS Association of China (GLAC) jointly launched “The Belt and Road” international cooperation alliance for satellite application, advocating complementary advantages and promoting the collaboration and cooperation of upstream and downstream enterprises in the domestic satellite navigation field. To a certain extent, this has played a role in the optimization and integration, the comprehensive and overall development of domestic resources, which is the embodiment of Qian Xuesen's system scientific thought.

In “The Belt and Road” regions, 1 or more industrial cooperative organizations covering countries along “The Belt and Road” can also be established to attract the participating companies of rocket launching, satellite manufacturing, satellite services, ground equipment industry, and financial services to form mutual exchanges and cooperation. Enterprises of all countries are encouraged to jointly invest in the construction of operational satellite systems, ground application systems, and regional data centers to achieve integrative development of satellite resource sharing, ground facilities sharing, and social capital coinvestment.

Overall Outsourcing and Independent Operation

The overall in-orbit delivery is the best way of cooperation in areas where the demands are clear and the technology base is relatively weak. The successful examples of China's overall in-orbit delivery projects include Nigerian communications satellites and Pakistan's remote sensing satellites. Through in-orbit delivery, users can quickly acquire communications or remote sensing capabilities in a short period of time.

China's satellite delivery project is mainly led by China Great Wall Industry Co., Ltd., which provides package services together with domestic departments of rocket launching, satellite development, ground system, insurance, financing, and technical training. With the maturity of China's domestic small satellite technology and the rise of private commercial space companies, private companies represented by OneSpace and Spacety also can jointly undertake rocket launching into orbit and the R&D of small satellite.

Joint Development and Cooperative Operation

China encourages social and international business investment to build commercial satellites and technology test satellites, and stimulates commercialized companies to provide market-oriented services to the public. Under the guidance of such policy, many kinds of mode of cooperation of satellite systems, such as cooperation with countries along the “The Belt and Road” to carry out collaborative design, cooperative development, cooperative operation and so on, will be the best way to promote the development of commercial space in the future.

Taking Nigeria-2 and Nigeria-3 satellite projects as examples, China Great Wall Industry Co., Ltd., will make an equity investment in NigComSat in satellite form. This cooperation model can not only solve the problem of insufficient funds in the early stage of Nigeria, but also help it to use the rich operational experience of China Great Wall Industry Co., Ltd., to carry out the market expansion and operation guarantee of satellite application in the later stage. At that time, the cooperative NigComSat Company will become a satellite operator covering 50% of Africa's population and region.

Among the private aerospace enterprises emerging in China, the representative Commsat proposed China's first communal building and sharing satellite constellation plan. It is planned to launch in the second half of 2018 with “one launch vehicle loaded with seven satellites” to carry out the trial commercial services of satellite Internet of Things, striving to rapidly deploy 72 low-orbit Internet of Things satellites in 3 years to achieve real-time data acquisition and interaction of global Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN) Internet of Things terminals. At present, it has signed cooperation memorandums with Sany Heavy Industry Group and Kazakhstan's National Space Agency to promote the “The Belt and Road Communal Building and Sharing Satellite Constellation Plan.”

Provide Services and Localized Operations

China's existing navigation and remote sensing satellite constellations are large in scale and huge in investment. While meeting the needs of domestic applications, they are also promoting their applications to the world, especially “The Belt and Road” regions, to seek localized cooperation.

Through the cooperation with local government to jointly build BeiDou navigation, Ground Based Augmentation System can provide real-time precise positioning service at decimeter level or centimeter level, and postprocessing millimeter level, and provide local users with more choices and better services. Up to now, Ground Based Augmentation System has been established in Chonburi province in Thailand, Laos' capital Vientiane, Karachi of Pakistan, Sri Lanka, etc. The first China–Arab BeiDou/GNSS Center has been built in Tunisia for providing high-precision positing, navigation, and timing services in the fields of local urban planning, surveying, mapping, environmental monitoring, disaster relief, traffic monitoring, navigation positioning, and port scheduling.

Conclusions

After >3 years of rapid development, China's commercial space industry has emerged a series of innovative enterprises and business models with a sound industrial chain. Since 2018, China's external commercial space launch and satellite delivery have shown a significant growth trend, which has greatly promoted the popularization and development of commercial space at home and abroad. There are broad market demand and huge potential for commercial space development in regions of “The Belt and Road.” With the opportunity brought by China's “The Belt and Road” policy, on the one hand, countries can promote their own space technology through cooperative development, service provision, or formation of industrial alliances, etc. On the other hand, nations can develop their own commercial space industry with the investment of diversified funds, cultivate new growth points of the national economy, and realize in-depth cooperation, close relationship, and integrative development of society, economy, technology, and culture in “The Belt and Road” regions, which can truly build “The Belt and Road” regions into a community with shared future for humanity and share the fruits of commercial space development.

Footnotes

Author Disclosure Statement

No competing financial interests exist.

Funding Information

No funding was received for this article.

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