China eyes bigger pie of space market
China, which has sent a mission to the moon, has plans to extend its mission to Mars
BEIJING: China has unveiled its new generation of commercial carrier rockets which could carry up to 1.5-tonne payload as it gears up to compete with other nations in a bid to take a bigger pie of the lucrative global space launch market.
The new “Long” rocket series comprising a cluster of solid-fuelled rockets codenamed “Smart Dragon” and a Tenglong liquid-propellant rocket were unveiled on Sunday by China Rocket, a commercial space wing of rocket-maker China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology, official media reported on Monday.
The new set of rockets were aimed at tapping the growing potential of domestic and global commercial space launches, staterun media reported. The new set of rockets was “basically capable of meeting the requirements of the overwhelming majority of launch missions for domestic and foreign commercial satellites,” the daily quoted a statement of China Rocket.
China, which has sent a mission to the moon, has elaborate plans to extend its mission to Mars besides setting up its own permanent space station by 2022. It, however, lags behind in attracting the global commercial rocket market, unlike India. In 2017, an article in a state-run newspaper warned that China’s space industry is lagging behind that of India in commercial space industry. “India’s successful launch of a record-breaking 104 satellites into orbit could serve as a wake-up call for China’s commercial space industry and there are a number of lessons for the country to learn,” the article said.
Meanwhile, China on Monday took a veiled swipe at the US, saying the incitement of “coloured revolutions” and overthrowing of legitimate governments by external forces are resulting in wars and turbulence in some regions of the world. Defence Minister General Wei Fenghe’s statement came amid unprecedented anti-government protests in Hong Kong, a Special Administrative Region of China which was handed over to the Communist nation in 1997 by the UK.