Wen 丨 Fei Guan, author 丨 Wei Chu Wei
Recently, Musk and his SpaceX spring breeze.
On February 11, 2020, the "Starship" conference, which has been away for more than 2 years, opened in front of the simple stage and the "Starship" stack combination, and Iron Man appeared from the shadows.
As Musk, who has the name of "price butcher", first performed his own best play for everyone:
Cry poor.
He talked about the first thing that hit back at the outside world, the question of whether it was worth spending so much money to explore space.
For example, he said, "NASA's fiscal year 2020 budget is 0.36 percent of the federal budget, less than 0.1 percent of U.S. GDP." So he thinks that we have not spent a lot of resources in the field of spaceflight, but this small investment is expected to make human beings a cross-planetary species and make human civilization more brilliant and brilliant.
Then, the press conference was interwoven in Iron Man's continuous eye-catching aerospace achievements and the painting pie of spitting lotus flowers.
For Iron Man, drawing big pies and bragging is one thing. But what's even worse is that he can always realize the bull he has bragged about.
At this conference, Musk not only came up with an iterative version of the "Raptor V2.0" with a thrust of 230 tons, but also said Versailles, "This thrust level can be further expanded to 250 tons, and achieve mass production a day." ”
Photo/Two versions of the "Raptor" engine announced at the starship press conference Image source/Space X official conference "Starship"
As the most powerful rocket in human history, this name may not be much, but it is surprising that it can achieve three high-frequency launches a day and a single launch cost of $10 million (the single launch of "Falcon 9" is quoted at $62 million), and it can also achieve full recovery and reuse, including heavy rocket boosters (SHBs).
Iron Man also said at the press conference that in the future, after the "starship" completes the orbital-level test, it will first be used to launch its own "starlink" satellite. On August 18, 2021, SpaceX announced in its launch plan to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that it will use "starships" to launch its second-generation starlink Gen 2, which explicitly deploys 29,996 satellites into 12 orbits between 328 and 614 kilometers in orbit and will use the starship as a vehicle to carry out launch missions.
SpaceX said in the document at the time that "deploying satellites with 'starships' allows satellites to be operational 'weeks after launch,' not months." As an important support for the current valuation of Space X of more than $100 billion, Starlink's "Starlink" plan has recently gone backwards.
Just on Feb. 9, the day before Musk was added to the National Academy of Engineering (NSA) as an academician. Space X's official website said, "Due to the impact of geomagnetic storms, the slight increase in atmospheric density has led to a 50% increase in air resistance to satellites, and 40 of the company's latest 49 Starlink satellites will re-enter or have re-entered the Earth's atmosphere and burned up." ”
The 49 starlink satellites, numbered "Group 4-7", were launched by the Falcon 9 rocket at 1:13 ET on February 3, and released the satellites in a low-orbit orbit 210 kilometers above sea level for commissioning and preparation before officially entering orbit. Unexpectedly, the satellite was subsequently hit by a geomagnetic storm caused by the solar wind, which prevented 40 satellites from completing their orbit and then began to re-enter the atmosphere.
Originally, the fall of the "Starlink" satellite was an old story. However, in this incident, there are many issues worth talking about that are worth talking about the construction of the "new infrastructure" of China's commercial aerospace enterprises and satellite Internet. This article will use "40 Starlink Moons Falling" as a lead point to explore:
1. The deep-seated causes of the crash of the Starlink satellite
2. The Starlink project is not just a business
3. What is the characteristicism of China's "StarLink" construction?
1. Starlink Crash: Natural or Man-made?
On February 7, an astronomical institution released a video showing the re-entry of the Starlink satellite into Earth's atmosphere, with several fireballs burning in the atmosphere like a beautiful meteor shower.
The trigger for this event is a geomagnetic storm caused by the solar wind, which is a temporary disturbance of the Earth's magnetosphere caused by the interaction of solar wind shock waves or magnetic field clouds with the Earth's magnetic field.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Space Weather Forecasting Center also explained, "The blowing of the solar wind changes the Earth's magnetic field, and the Earth's upper atmosphere warms up and increases in density, which makes the upper atmosphere thicker and tighter than before." ”
For us ordinary melon eaters, changes in the solar wind and the Earth's magnetic field will bring us many unexpected surprises, such as the aurora in some areas where there is no aurora.
But in fact, solar wind and geomagnetic anomalies can have a certain impact on human space activities. Tamitha Skov, an expert at foreign space agencies, said, "Most people really like this phenomenon, but they don't realize the harm at all because what they focus on is the good-looking aurora." ”
Experts from the Chinese Academy of Sciences have also said that the increase in global upper atmospheric temperature during geomagnetic storms and the increase in atmospheric density near satellite orbits have increased the resistance of satellites. In addition, changes in atmospheric composition and atmospheric circulation will also change the ionosphere of the Earth's atmosphere, which will affect the communication between satellites and the ground.
Figure/The role of the solar wind and the Earth's magnetic field Image source/Google
Space meteorologists at the Chinese Academy of Sciences restored the fall of the Starlink satellite, "The source of this geomagnetic storm was the M-class flare of the sun on January 29, followed by moderate-intensity coronal ejection material on January 30." After that, the solar wind carries a plasma mass and reaches the vicinity of The Earth on February 3, interacting with the Earth's magnetic field to produce a geomagnetic storm. ”
The causes of geomagnetic storms are already clear. So, didn't Space X look at the space weather forecast before launch to circumvent this geomagnetic storm?
However, in the reports of foreign media, it is not that Space X did not look at the space weather forecast, but made a decision to launch normally after watching it. The NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center's Feb. 2 forecast shows that a moderate-scale geomagnetic storm will occur that day, which is grade II (G2) out of a total of 5 grades, and will be downgraded to level 1 on Feb. 3.
Experts from the Chinese Academy of Sciences also said in an interview with the media, "The geomagnetic storm encountered during the damage of the Starlink satellite is the lowest level of geomagnetic storm." Geomagnetic storms of this magnitude, from 1957 to the present, occur on average more than 50 days a year. In high solar years, more than 120 days a year occur. ”
This level of geomagnetic storm has little impact on ordinary satellites, which may be one of the reasons why Space X ignores weather forecasts.
But the Starlink satellite is very different from other ordinary satellites, and this difference comes from a proud design of Space X:
Unique upshift mechanism
Under this unique orbit-lifting mechanism, the Starlink satellite will be moored in a very low orbit of 210 kilometers perigee, where a series of on-orbit tests will be conducted to confirm that the satellite is in good condition before the satellite's own electric thruster orbit-up operation will be initiated.
Conversely, if the satellite is not in good condition in orbit testing, it will not be upgraded. Satellites automatically re-enter the atmosphere, and the re-entry process plans its orbit to avoid the risk of collision with other satellites.
The design, which Space X prides itself on, is designed to avoid creating more space junk. According to astrophysics knowledge, the farther the perigee is from The Earth, the weaker the gravitational pull of the spacecraft by the Earth, the slower it will re-enter the Earth's atmosphere.
Data show that for an orbit of more than 200 km perigee, the re-entry time of a failed satellite into the atmosphere is several weeks, while in an orbit of 550 km it takes several years. In addition, the satellite re-enters the Earth's atmosphere in an orbit of 550 kilometers, and may also pass through the current 2 manned space stations of humans, which will pose a potential collision hazard.
But the unique orbit-up mechanism also laid the groundwork for the re-entry of the Starlink satellite, SpaceX said in the news, "Preliminary analysis shows that the speed and severity of the escalation of this magnetic storm caused the atmospheric resistance to increase by as much as 50% over previous launches, making it impossible for the satellite to leave the safe mode." After suffering from a geomagnetic storm, the Starlink satellite was adjusted to "safety mode" by ground personnel, flying sideways "like a piece of paper" according to the instructions, so that the resistance of the solar sail panels could be greatly reduced, but this strategy did not seem to work.
The perigee of 210 km is the transition zone between the atmosphere and the satellite orbital space, and it is also the outermost layer of the atmosphere, and the meteorological environment in this area is complex, and few satellites generally choose to stay in this orbit.
Space expert Skov said, "A lot of commercial space companies don't understand how much space weather affects satellites, especially these small satellites. ”
According to the data, the atmospheric density decays with the altitude index, and for every 100 km of orbit, the atmospheric resistance is 1-2 orders of magnitude lower, and the atmospheric resistance of the 400-500 km orbital altitude is relatively small. There is no doubt that the crash of the "Starlink" satellite has also given a wake-up call to Chinese commercial space companies that will launch small satellites in low orbit in the future, and spaceflight is an extremely complex systemic work.
Moreover, at present, human beings still know very little about the understanding of space space, and we still need to carry out more practical scientific experiments and empirical explorations for the study of the impact of the space environment on human spacecraft. This time, the impact of solar activity on the Earth's atmosphere, and the unique ascending mechanism of the "Starlink" satellite. And more importantly, the neglect of space weather forecasts is the root cause of the fall of the "Starlink" satellite.
All along, Musk and his Space X have become the outliers of the space circle with disruptive innovation and super efficiency. However, this incident just shows that the goal of "pursuing success rate and accuracy rate" adhered to by both US aerospace and Chinese aerospace in the past is not outdated.
As a low-orbit small satellite constellation, the cost of the "Starlink" plan is not high, and Musk has said that the cost of each satellite is about $500,000. It only takes a short period from design to launch, and is essentially a robot that will not cause significant impact even if it is damaged.
But what if the payload carried by Falcon 9 is replaced by a large manned spacecraft such as a manned spacecraft or a space station?
At the end of the last century, several space shuttle explosions in the United States caused serious losses of life and property, and also caused the United States' space industry to suffer a serious setback at the beginning of the new century.
Aerospace is a systematic project that attaches importance to experimentation and empirical research, and at present, many practitioners of Chinese commercial aerospace are trying to emulate Musk's rapid iteration of the so-called Internet and ICT thinking to achieve the "curve overtaking" of aerospace projects.
As everyone knows, the commercial space markets of China and the United States are completely different, and the cultures are not all similar, and China's private commercial space companies need to have strong ground and space support and supporting capabilities to complete their space dreams. Some Internet companies that cross-border into the aerospace field cannot rely on copying the playing style of the past Internet to try to quickly gain a piece of the pie in the commercial aerospace field of "three highs and one long".
Engaging in aerospace, if you want to ascend to the sky one step at a time, it will always be a castle in the air.
2, Starlink Plan: go your own way, so that others have no way to go
In 2015, Musk first proposed the "Starlink" plan to launch 12,000 low-orbit Internet satellites. In 2018, 2 "Starlink" project test stars were successfully launched.
Subsequently, the progress of the "Starlink" program entered the fast lane. By the end of 2021, the deployment of "Starlink" satellites in the sky has exceeded 2,000.
On the ground, the commercialization process of "Starlink" is not lagging behind at all. On November 10 last year, Space X showed in a material to the Federal Communications and Communications Commission (FCC) that "StarLink is currently providing Internet access to about 140,000 users in 20 countries, with about 40,000 users up from the August figure, and has received more than 750,000 global orders." ”
On February 17 this year, Musk tweeted that "StarLink already has 250,000 active users." With the rapid development of "StarLink" in overseas markets, it has now taken root in 25 countries.
Photo/Musk Twitter screenshot Image source/Twitter
250,000 active users means a monthly revenue rollover of $25 million, or $300 million a year.
Musk has said that after the completion of the "StarLink" networking in 2027, it will achieve an annual revenue of $30 billion, which requires about 25 million active users. At present, in the absence of alternatives, this goal is not very difficult to achieve. After all, there are nearly 4 billion people on the planet who are not connected to the Internet, and this market space is very vast.
However, with the gradual increase in the number of users of "StarLink", some early adopters of "StarLink" Internet services said that their user experience is not very good.
Last summer, a user from Arizona, USA, posted that the hot summer in Arizona overheated his "StarLink" terminal antenna, and the network was interrupted for more than 7 hours.
When the network is interrupted, the software automatically pops up a prompt that it is currently offline and that the "StarChain" will reconnect when the temperature drops.
After he consulted customer service, the other party responded to him, "The satellite receiving antenna will enter a thermal shutdown state at 122 degrees Fahrenheit (about 50 degrees Celsius), and it will restart when it drops to 104 degrees Fahrenheit (40 degrees Celsius)." ”
According to Space X's official information, the temperature range of the "Starlink" terminal antenna is minus 22 degrees Fahrenheit to 104 degrees Fahrenheit, and terminals beyond this range will not be able to operate.
On Reddit, a netizen from Virginia also posted about the sudden interruption of his "StarLink" terminal, but he said that the temperature was only 80 degrees Fahrenheit. At the end of 2020, "StarLink" fans ushered in the first internal test of the "StarLink" terminal, but from the name of this version of the terminal "better than nothing", it can be seen that the performance of the first batch of "StarLink" terminals does not dare to compliment.
According to Space X internal employees, whether you can access the Internet depends on the number of satellites, coverage, weather conditions and other factors, in short: it is better than nothing.
However, adhering to the "StarChain" terminal of what bicycle it wants, it has completed a wave of siege in the world in the following more than 1 year.
In April 2021, StarLink entered Australia.
Last year, an Australian Twitter user posted and asked, "What is it like to drive a Tesla Model X and fly on the highway at a speed of 100 kilometers per hour." The netizen then replied in the comment area, "You can enjoy the StarLink broadband service of 200Mb per second, and the radius of receiving data can reach 40 kilometers." ”
The "StarLink" and Tesla dual users from Perth, Australia, shared their own experience: he put the first generation of "StarLink" flying saucer antenna with a diameter of nearly half a meter on the tail of the Tesla Model X, and moved at high speed to test how fast the "StarLink" network speed was.
Photo/Australian Twitter netizen test "Starlink" terminal Image source/Twitter
Musk, who uses Twitter Governance, also modestly replied to the netizen at the bottom, "Satellite and terminal software needs further improvement." ”
But Musk hasn't always been so humble, and his Starlink satellites haven't always been that smooth last year.
Late last year, a note from China's Permanent Mission to the United Nations and other international organizations revealed a space accident to the U.N. Secretary-General: In 2021, the Starlink satellite approached the Chinese space station twice, posing a danger to the Chinese space station and astronauts.
ESA data at the time showed that the chance of the two satellites colliding at that time was one in a thousand, but the "Starlink" satellite did not have any intention of maneuvering to dodge.
Subsequently, the communication between ESA and Space X also made an unpleasant scene, causing ESA head Ashbach to warn in the media that "half of the satellites still in operation in the world are owned by Musk, in fact, he has become a rule-maker." ”
Subsequently, Musk countered accusations from the outside world in the Financial Times, "Low Earth orbit has enough space to accommodate tens of billions of satellites, and thousands of satellites are like thousands of cars on Earth, which is nothing at all." ”
The matter was subsequently resolved, and Space X promised to take certain measures to prevent accidental encounters in space. But there are no mandatory policies and rules that require him to do so.
On the contrary, the U.S. government has repeatedly condoned and favored Musk and his Space X. This can be seen in Space X's approval of an application to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to increase the number of Starlink satellites and change the orbital altitude.
For StarLink, the U.S. Department of Defense and the government are also its users.
In April 2021, the U.S. Department of Defense hopes to build a miniature antenna with Space X to connect to the "Starlink" satellite network, and the U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) is interested in battery-powered microsatellite antennas, which can help their soldiers maintain efficient communication and contact with headquarters at all times during special operations.
One of the benefits Musk claims when it comes to networking Satellites is the full coverage of the Internet in any part of the world, including oceans, mountains and tricky polar regions.
In January 2021, SpaceX deployed the first 10 Starchain satellites into polar orbit, covering the Arctic region, including alaska. As the world's policeman, the U.S. military has military bases in any corner of the world, but about 70% of the world has not built ground communication base stations, and the US military bases in the Arctic have been plagued by Internet access.
In addition to the above projects, according to the information released by the US Pentagon, the "Starlink" program was originally part of the US military's "Star Wars program", and its connection with the US Air and Space Force is very close. The "Starlink" program also carries the task of transforming a new generation of US space security strategy, and is one of the foundations for the US military to form an "air-space-ground integration" combat capability.
In overseas military operations such as the Gulf War, the Kosovo War, and the Iraq War, the US military was able to rely on satellite networks to form an information superiority and firmly grasp the right to control information on the battlefield.
In the future, after the completion of the "Starlink" plan, the world's most powerful command and communication network will also be born. U.S. unmanned aerial vehicles, strategic bombers, aircraft carrier battle groups, and nuclear submarines receive orders at any time, and "Starlink" can provide high-speed coverage without dead ends around the world, greatly enhancing the combat communication capabilities of the US military.
Imagine that each of Starlink's 42,000 satellites can transmit high-definition pictures and videos taken over the theater to frontline commanders and fighters through Starlink. At the same time, the massive information taken by the drone over the battlefield does not need to be compressed locally, but directly transmits the original data through the "star chain" to the command headquarters on the other side of the earth.
Then, in the future, the US military will become the master of the battlefield, and the commanders and fighters of the US military can open the "God perspective" like playing video games. This open-and-hung behavior would cause their enemies to lose the war before it even began.
So, as a Chinese aerospace that has been suppressed by the US government, how to fight back? Where is our own StarLink program?
3. The new national system, China's characteristic medicine
On the eve of the Spring Festival in 2022, the Information Office of the State Council released the five-year "2021 China Aerospace" white paper. As another official "five-year plan" for China's space industry, the white paper will be the action plan and construction goals of the mainland's space activities in the next five years.
In the white paper, it is emphasized that the mainland will continue to improve the construction of space infrastructure, "satellite communication and broadcasting terrestrial system continues to improve, forming a global satellite communication broadcasting, Internet, Internet of Things and information service capabilities covering the integration of heaven and earth." ”
Five years ago, the white paper "2016 China's Aerospace" on the construction of low-orbit communication constellations stated, "build a space-space integrated information network, basically build a space infrastructure system, form a continuous and stable business service capability, and promote the development of satellite and application industries... Gradually build a satellite communication and broadcasting system covering the whole world and integrated with the terrestrial communication network. ”
For the expression of the constellation of low-orbit communication satellites, in the two versions of the plan, the 2021 white paper emphasizes the integration of the "space-earth integrated information network" including broadcasting, Internet and Internet of Things.
It can be seen that since at least 2016, the official construction of satellite Internet has been on the agenda.
From the point of view of time, the start time of our low-orbit constellation construction is actually not much later than Musk. From 2016 to 2018, national team players in the aerospace and communication fields such as aerospace science and technology, aerospace science and industry, China Electricity, and China Telecom have proposed their own low-orbit satellite constellation plans.
In August 2017, Aerospace Science and Industry Group announced its own "Five Clouds and One Vehicle Project" (Feiyun, Fast Cloud, Xingyun, Rainbow Cloud, Tengyun and High-speed Flying Train) at the China (International) Commercial Aerospace Summit Forum, of which "Hongyun Project" is the low-orbit satellite Internet constellation plan. On December 22, 2018, the first star of the "Rainbow Cloud Project" was successfully sent into orbit.
In 2016, another aerospace central enterprise, Aerospace Science and Technology, proposed the "Hongyan Constellation" plan to build 300 low-orbit small satellites, and on December 29, 2018, the first star of the "Hongyan Constellation" was also successfully sent into orbit.
It was not difficult to launch a technical verification star into the sky, and at that time, including the national team players, there were several satellite constellation networking plans in the country. PPT paints a grand vision in every way around, but the construction of satellite constellations is not so easy.
Musk once said in an interview that the initial investment cost of the "StarLink" plan is about $10 billion, and the entire system construction is expected to cost $30 billion. Although the system will be able to generate $30 billion in revenue for Space X every year after completion, the entire "StarLink" system has been proposed since 2015 and is expected to be completed by 2027, with a cycle of up to 12 years.
As part of the commercial aerospace industry, the construction of internet constellations not only has the characteristics of high investment and long payback period of the infrastructure industry, but also has a very high threshold of technology and innovation. The construction of giant low-orbit constellations not only requires a lot of money and time to lay out the infrastructure of orbit and ground, but also needs to coordinate and coordinate a large number of social resources in the future to deeply develop and penetrate the original ground market.
The "StarLink" program relies on the power of more than just Space X, behind Musk is the US government department and Department of Defense that wields dollars of Wall Street capital and provides new technology materials and orders.
Policy guidance and financial support can make Musk open the wings of innovation and take off smoothly.
For ourselves, the systematic and social project of the low-orbit satellite constellation can rely on the advantages of the new national system. Under the guidance of the government, we will unify and coordinate social resources and mobilize all parties to actively participate in the construction of giant low-orbit satellite constellations.
A leader of the Chinese Academy of Sciences once discussed the issue of a new national system under the scientific and technological and industrial revolution, "The new national system is not to re-follow the old road of 'strong government domination and neglect of the role of the market' in the planned economy period, nor is it to emulate the neoliberal advocacy of 'complete dependence on the market, no government intervention'."
In the new national system, the government and the market are not either-or antagonistic relations, but interdependent and complementary, not only to implement the national will, focus on the country's major strategic needs, to achieve the national strategic goals, but also to maintain and stimulate the vitality of various types of innovative subjects, and give play to the role of the market in the allocation of scientific and technological resources. ”
In April 2020, the National Development and Reform Commission held a press conference to list the satellite Internet as an information infrastructure project in the "new infrastructure", and since then the giant low-orbit constellation has become an important part of the national strategy.
On April 28, 2021, the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council announced the establishment of a new central enterprise called China Satellite Network Group Co., Ltd., which has a registered capital of 10 billion yuan, and the company's business scope includes demonstration design, research and testing, engineering design, engineering construction and basic telecommunications services of satellite Internet.
It can be seen that the positioning of this new central enterprise will be the main force and mainstay of the construction of satellite Internet projects on the mainland in the future. Then, since the main force already exists, a large number of fresh forces are needed to innovate and develop in all aspects around the mainstay.
All kinds of innovative entities represented by private commercial aerospace enterprises will be of great use in the construction of the giant low-orbit satellite constellation on the mainland, and domestic companies have made some progress in this regard.
At the end of 2021, the unicorn in the domestic commercial aerospace field, the valuation of galaxy aerospace reached the level of 1 billion US dollars, good news came. In the satellite batch chemical plant of Galaxy Aerospace, 6 low-orbit Internet small satellites successfully rolled off the production line. Previously, Galaxy Aerospace laid out an intelligent satellite batch manufacturing plant in Nantong, Jiangsu Province, and according to Galaxy Aerospace, the cost of a single star development of a smart factory has dropped by more than half compared with the first star of Galaxy Aerospace.
Photo/ The first batch of 6 low-orbit communication Internet satellites rolled off the production line Image source/Galaxy Aerospace
In the follow-up, Galaxy Aerospace will further reduce the mass production cost of satellites and help the construction of the mainland satellite Internet constellation.
In addition to Galactic Aerospace, another commercial space company, Nine Days MSI, has also made some progress recently. As a private commercial aerospace company that joined the "State Grid Program" in 2020, Nine Days MSI positioned itself as a supplier of the micro-satellite industry chain.
Late last year, they announced that the low-orbit communications test satellite had passed the factory review. Nine Days MSI said, "The communication capability of this satellite will reach 10Gbps, and after successful launch in the future, it can provide high-speed network interconnection services for users on the ground in unlimited areas and locations." ”
By the end of 2021, the first phase of the nine-day MSI satellite batch manufacturing plant in Tangshan will be completed, and it is expected to achieve an annual production capacity of 100 small satellites.
As the infrastructure of the integrated information network of space, space, and sea in the 6G era, the satellite Internet cannot accept the fact that "StarLink" is the only one. Under the guidance of the new national system, the national team and our private commercial space companies will form a joint force to break through the blockade of Our Space Infrastructure construction in Europe and the United States.
End
In the 1993 Galaxy incident, the United States overbearingly let the Chinese freighter drift on the high seas for 33 days without any reason.
And in order to force the "Galaxy" to stop at the normal navigation of the Indian Ocean, the United States not only sent warships and helicopters, but also cut off the GPS system on which the "Galaxy" freighter relied for navigation, so that this huge cargo ship had to drift like a headless fly in the Indian Ocean.
Finally, the incident ended with the US side boarding the ship and not finding any prohibited chemical weapons on board, but the incident became an indelible diplomatic shame in the history of New China.
In the CCTV interview program, Sha Zukang, the deputy director of the International Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and later the deputy secretary-general of the United Nations, who was responsible for handling the incident at the time, angrily faced the camera and said, "Wow, it's just too much." ”
This is also one of the important reasons why the mainland accelerated the construction of the "Big Dipper" navigation constellation later, because we realized that the 24-hour openness of GPS to civilian and commercial use is nonsense. The U.S. government will use all its forces and means to achieve its own political and strategic ends.
Later, in the process of networking the "Beidou" satellite constellation, the mainland researchers hurried to catch up, and finally took a step ahead of the European "Galileo" plan, and successfully seized the frequency and orbital resources needed for navigation satellites.
These past events in the past are all a wake-up call to the builders of China's "Star Chain": the time is not waiting for me, only the day
Before the Spring Festival in 2022, in the newly released "2021 China Aerospace" white paper, we see more good news and new opportunities that are beneficial to China's commercial spaceflight.
From the government expanding the scope of procurement of commercial aerospace products and services, to promoting the sharing of scientific research infrastructure between the national team and private commercial aerospace enterprises, to supporting private commercial aerospace enterprises to participate in the development of major national aerospace engineering projects.
A series of newly introduced policies and methods are to accelerate the growth of China's commercial space companies, China's commercial space without Space X, there is no Musk, China's commercial aerospace should not expect a Musk to change the backward status quo.
On the way from a space power to a space power, all Chinese commercial space practitioners can do is to rely on themselves and work hard.
On November 26, 2005, at the conference to celebrate the success of the "Shenzhou VI" manned space flight, then President Hu Jintao spoke affectionately to the staff of the "Shenzhou VI" mission:
Especially able to endure hardships, especially able to fight, especially able to tackle tough problems, especially able to dedicate
This sentence in the past, present and future will be the best portrayal of every Chinese astronaut!
Resources:
Xinhua News Agency, "2021 China's Aerospace" White Paper, January 28, 2022
Xinhua News Agency, "2016 China's Aerospace" White Paper, December 27, 2016
Science and Technology Daily, "49 "Starlink" satellites suffered from geomagnetic storms, all of which were caused by the sun? February 12, 2022
DeepTech Deep Technology, "SpaceX "Starchain" Satellite Antenna Goes Wrong Again, Hot Weather Causes Disconnection," June 19, 2021