This Day, That Year

Item from June 6, 1999, in China Daily: Workers make rocket components at a G&A Technologies plant in Guilin in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region.

A key producer and supplier of rocket and satellite parts, the company is diversifying into civilian products in cooperation with foreign partners.

In the past few years, China has strengthened cooperation on space exploration with the international community.

Since 2011, China has signed 43 space cooperation agreements or memorandums of understanding with 29 countries, space agencies and international organizations, according to a government white paper released in December.

In January, Landspace Technology Corp secured a contract from Gomspace of Denmark to launch a series of satellites next year. Landspace is the first private Chinese company to provide satellite launch services to a foreign client.

China is boosting its share of the global commercial satellite launch business. As of November, the country has launched 55 foreign satellites. It aims to increase its market share to 15 percent by 2020.

In addition, the country has been hosting international space events.

In 2013, the International Astronautical Congress was held in Beijing, and the Global Space Exploration Conference is being held in the capital this week.