Good day and welcome to episode 5 of the Dongfang Hour, the China Aerospace and Tech Podcast. Today we are discussing China’s funky space industry. Before going into our list of funky projects, we will have two definitions of “funky” in this episode:
- Plain old funky. This refers to projects that are funky in every sense of the word--funky technologies, business models, etc. This includes space planes, solar harvesting, and electromagnetic rockets.
- Funky in an “only in China” way. This refers to companies buying orbital slots as a way of moving money out of China, or online video giants that can justify buying their own EO satellite.
Without further ado, here is the list of today's discussion. Sources and useful material are available on our website here.
- Space planes
- Overview of Chinese space plane projects
- CASIC's very ambitious Tengyun space plane project
- CASIC’s Five Clouds
- CASIC's ambitious Five Cloud projects, and prospects in commercial space
- Electromagnetic launch
- September 2020 saw a press release from Guangzhou Guoyao Tech about electromagnetic launch ambitions.
- Satcom
- The story of Chinese company Tatwah Smartech trading an orbital slot for a 49% stake in a Sri Lankan satellite operator
- Tatwah's adventures in Sri Lanka
- CGWIC satellites sold to developing countries
- Commsat/LadyBeetle Selfie Satellite
- Commsat, the LadyBeetle-1 satellite, and space selfies
- Bilibili Satellite
- Bilibili's space channel project
- General discussion of Chinese tech companies as an "equivalent" of US companies
- Artificial Moon/Chengdu Death Star
- An artificial moon project in Chengdu to replace street lights
- Chongqing as future solar harvesting center of China
- Chongqing to become the center of China’s space solar power harvesting industry by 2030, and the feasibility of such projects.
Thanks again for listening, and we look forward to seeing you next time!