On April 1, the famous Taobao anchor Wei Ya brought a rocket worth RMB 40 million in his live broadcast room.
The original price of the rocket delivery service was 45 million yuan, and the Wei Ya live broadcast room had a direct discount of 5 million yuan and a deposit of 500,000 yuan.
This sale is actually the Kuaizhou No. 1 A launch vehicle's delivery service. This rocket has already carried out eight commercial launches before, and it is a rocket independently developed by China.
After the purchase, the money paid will become the funding for the researcher, and its scientific significance is far greater than the practical application.
Services include: a launch of Kuaizhou No. 1 Carrier Rocket KZ-1A, mission title, arrow body and launch vehicle advertisement, authorized partner, visit launch site to observe launch, etc.
If you want to carry items in the rocket, you also need to undergo strict approval by the relevant departments.
China's commercial rocket launch market: the demand for the satellite navigation industry alone will exceed 400 billion yuan by 2020
Let's not evaluate Wei Ya's true intention of selling rocket services this time. In any case, we should see that China's demand for rocket delivery services is real.
Just as during the live event, Kuaizhou Rocket's chief scientist assistant's official Weibo account revealed that, in addition to the lively users, there were also customers who actually came to consult services.
According to preliminary statistics, in 2018, China launched 39 rockets, 12 of which were equipped with commercial satellites.
Among them are "Betta 666" on December 7, 2018 and "RE: X Star" which is said to be launched by Luhan for fans, and the commercial concept of satellite launch has been updated again.
In 2019, China launched a total of 34 rockets, and at least 12 carried commercial satellites.
Regarding the demand for rocket launch services in China, Shu Chang, founder of OneSpace, once said: "The rocket industry has a huge market. Satellites carry rocket launches to heaven, and their retention time in orbit is only about 1-5 years. Task requirements, this is a huge market space. "
He also said, "Orders are not a problem. The key problem is that you want to fly. You can't always build rockets with PPT. You really fly. After flying, orders will come in one after another."
"From the perspective of the entire aerospace industry chain, rockets are similar to the 'entry' of the Internet. This industry chain includes rocket manufacturing, satellite manufacturing, launching, satellite operations, satellite applications, and ground base stations. Horizontal expansion includes space station transportation and equipment development. And the rocket is the core intersection of the entire chain. "
The miniaturization and low orbit of satellites have caused an explosion in satellite launch requirements. In China, there are only seven or eight private rocket companies, but there are already twenty or thirty private satellite companies.
At the annual International Astronautical Congress, satellite operators from various countries called for the production of small rockets.
Large rockets are very expensive, starting at 100 million US dollars. For low-orbit satellites, the launch cost is too expensive. A small satellite costs only hundreds of thousands of dollars, but it costs tens of millions of dollars per flight.
In 2019, the global satellite industry revenue is expected to be about 300 billion US dollars.
US Loma and Boeing's joint launch alliance provides US government launch services at a cost of $ 14,000 to $ 20,000 per kilogram.
New Zealand's electronic rockets cost about $ 37,000 per kilogram. The "Kuaizhou 1" of AVIC is also around USD 20,000 per kilogram.
The Indian PSLV Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle is the cheapest, with less than $ 20,000 per kilogram.
The entry of Chinese civilian-run rocket companies has advantages in this regard. The cost of launching the "Suzaku 2" developed by Landspace is 30% lower than that of India PSLV.
At present, there are mainly 8 well-known private rocket companies in China, including LinkSpace, iSpace, Enterspace, OneSpace, Deep Blue Aerospace, Galactic Energy, Starway Discovery and Jiuzhou Rocket.
The earliest one was LinkSpace, which was established on January 2, 2014. It should be said that this is China's first private rocket company.
Landspace was established in June 2015; OneSpace was established in August; iSpace was established in October 2016; Star Map Discovery, Jiuzhou Rocket, and Smotor were successively established in 2017; Jilin Enterspace was established in September 2018.
It can be seen that after 2014, private aerospace companies began to increase. This may have two main reasons:
The first is policy-driven. In March 2015, military-civilian integration rose to a national strategy.
The second is inspired by the launch of the SPACEX rocket, which has greatly inspired Chinese space people, and startups can also successfully launch rockets.
Although many private rocket companies have been established, due to their late start, high rocket research and development technology, and complicated structure, their progress is relatively slow compared to the United States SPACEX. So far, only iSpace and OneSpace have completed rocket launch missions.
At 2 am on April 5, 2018, the "Hyperbolt One S" technology developed by iSpace verified the successful launch of the sounding rocket, becoming the first domestic enterprise to successfully launch a rocket by a private enterprise.
At 7:33 am on May 17, 2018, OneSpace's OS-X "Chongqing Liangjiang Star" technical test sounding rocket also successfully launched.
On September 5 of the same year, iSpace launched the Hyperbolic No. 1 Z rocket again and carried three cubic star test satellites. This is a commercial launch mission completed by a Chinese private commercial aerospace company, marking the closed loop of the Chinese private commercial aerospace market business model.
On September 7, OneSpace's OS-X1 "Chongqing Liangjiang Star" commercial sub-orbital rocket was successfully launched, but as in the previous case, it was also a no-load launch test.
At 16:00 on October 27, 18, the "Suzaku-1" rocket independently researched and developed by Landspace Aerospace took off, but the rocket appeared in a city at level 3 and failed to enter solar synchronous orbit.
By 2019, these two companies are still launching rockets. On March 27, 2019, the OneSpaceOS-M "Chongqing Two Rivers Star" launch mission with zero-weight space "Linger One B Star" failed, and the rocket lost control after the first stage separation.
At 13:00 on July 25, 2019, iSpace's Hyperbolic One rocket successfully delivered multiple satellites into the predetermined 300 km circular orbit at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. This is also the first time that Chinese private enterprise rockets have entered orbit.
In general, iSpace is at the forefront of Chinese nationally launched rockets, followed by OneSpace. Who will launch the first shot of a rocket launched by a private enterprise in 2020?