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 28 December - 3 January.
1) Deep Blue Aerospace Completed Wet Dress Rehearsal & gives Hints on its 2021 Calendar
Last week, DBA posted an update of the company’s progress, showing notably images of the completion of the wet dress rehearsal of their “Nebula-M No.1” experimental rocket. This included the erection of the LV, connecting electrical & hydraulic systems, and cooling/loading fuel.
Nebula-M will not actually be a product of the DBA Nebula rocket family. Nebula-M is a small experimental test vehicle (only 7.3 m tall!), and its purpose is to test Vertical Take-off Vertical Landing (VTVL), a key technology for reusability. DBA is planning static firing tests in 2021, and if all goes well, it will proceed to “hops”, very much like what iSpace is planning (or what SpaceX initially did with the Grasshopper).
2) OTT Airlines Maiden Flight
On 28 December, OTT Airlines (aka 1-2-3 Airlines) made its maiden flight from Shanghai Hongqiao to Beijing Capital. The China Eastern Airlines subsidiary was founded in February 2020 as a regional airline. The airline is noteworthy in that its order book is entirely Chinese--OTT plans to fly ARJ21s and C919s, both manufactured by COMAC (though with many foreign components, as we highlighted in our news update for the week of 7-13 December 2020).
As a subsidiary of China Eastern, OTT Airlines likely has significant financial resources. The airline is another example of China’s localization drive, with most Chinese airlines today having large legacy fleets of predominantly Airbus and Boeing aircraft. Starting from scratch, OTT will be taking deliveries of several ARJ21 this year.
3) China and Italy Celebrate 50 Years of Diplomatic Relations
China and Italy celebrated 50 years of diplomatic relations this week, with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Italian counterpart Luigi Di Maio having a video conference to discuss cooperation. Of note to the space industry is the fact that space was indeed an area of emphasis during the discussion. The most apparent example is that Italy will have a small payload on the Chang’e-6 mission.
4) Not China-Related, but significant
Hanwha announced a $30 million investment into flat-panel antenna (FPA) company Kymeta. Kymeta is a company building FPAs for the LEO broadband constellations that are being developed by SpaceX/Amazon/etc. The company is noteworthy for having attracted significant funding from Bill Gates. This week, Korean conglomerate Hanwha announced a $30 million investment into the company. This follows Hanwha’s earlier acquisition of Phasor, another FPA manufacturing company.
Moving forward, as China builds out its own industrial base for a LEO broadband constellation, it is noteworthy that Korean companies such as Hanwha are getting increasingly significantly involved in the space. Such companies will likely serve as competitors to Chinese companies such as CETC, who are also working to develop the ground component of China’s LEO broadband ambitions.
This has been another episode of the Dongfang Hour China Aero/Space News Roundup. Thanks for watching, and we wish you a wonderful year in 2021!
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