As the new year begins, a commercial space race integrating technology, capital, and strategic resources is quietly intensifying. The Financial Times reported that Elon Musk is accelerating efforts for SpaceX to complete its initial public offering (IPO) by July this year, targeting a valuation as high as $1.5 trillion and planning to raise over $30 billion. If successful, this would become the largest IPO in human history.

Focusing domestically, following the low-altitude economy in 2024 and humanoid robots in 2025, commercial spaceflight has taken over as the technology "hotspot" at the beginning of 2026, igniting a "New Year rally" in the A-share market and driving single-day trading volumes to repeatedly刷新 historical records. Simultaneously, multiple leading companies in the industry have密集 updated their IPO辅导 progress.

Why is the commercial space sector exploding at this moment? Amid the industry fervor, how can Sichuan, as a nationally designated strategic aerospace base, seize the opportunity? Multiple favorable factors, including the frequency of launches and exploding satellite demand, suggest that the成熟落地 of reusable rockets is expected to accelerate.

China's commercial space sector is undergoing rapid growth. In 2025, China conducted a record-high 92 space launches throughout the year.

Alongside the annual increase in launches, leading commercial rocket companies have also entered a phase of stable operations. Several private rocket firms, such as Zhongke Aerospace, Landspace, and Galactic Energy, have achieved "multiple launches per year," while demand for application scenarios like remote sensing and communications is becoming increasingly clear.

The commercial space sector's entry into the fast lane is driven by a combination of multiple factors.

On the supply side, policy tailwinds continue. At the national level, commercial spaceflight has been included in the Government Work Report for two consecutive years. The China National Space Administration established a Department of Commercial Space and announced an action plan to promote the high-quality and safe development of commercial spaceflight (2025-2027).

At the local level, over 20 local governments have introduced industrial policies related to commercial space development, many have set up dedicated commercial space funds, and the STAR Market has reinstated the fifth set of listing standards for the commercial space industry... The叠加 of policy, capital, and market forces presents a development opportunity for commercial spaceflight.

On the demand side, explosive growth is evident. China has currently filed applications for over 250,000 satellites. This意味着 that China must successfully launch over 25,000 satellites into space within the next 9 years, and accumulate launches of over 120,000 satellites within the next 12 years. Such a massive volume necessitates relying on market forces to scale and industrialize satellite launches.

"Satellite launch costs remain high; reducing costs and increasing efficiency is the core demand of the industry," said an industry insider. Reusable rockets are a key path to cost reduction and are also driving continuous breakthroughs on the technological front.

The industry anticipates that this year could be a true watershed moment for Chinese reusable rockets. More than ten models, including the Zhuque-3 and Long March 12A rockets, will simultaneously aim to achieve first-stage recovery success. Industry experts point out that密集 technological verification will accelerate the成熟落地 of reusable rockets, clearing a core obstacle for the scaled development of commercial spaceflight.

Seizing the initiative, Sichuan possesses strong late-mover advantages and is锚定攻坚 reusable rocket technology.

According to statistics from the "China Commercial Space Industry Research Report," the scale of China's commercial space industry reached 2.5 to 2.8 trillion yuan in 2025.

Looking nationwide, Beijing, Shanghai, and Hainan rank in the top tier, forming differentiated competitive advantages; Sichuan, Shaanxi, Hubei, and others currently belong to the second tier. Industry insiders坦言 that although Sichuan still faces challenges such as insufficient policy granularity, lack of precision in capital support, and uneven technological攻坚, it possesses strong late-mover advantages due to its complete industrial chain system and strategic hinterland status. Sichuan is not only home to powerful "national team" players in areas like rocket mass production, satellite payload development, and satellite TT&C (Telemetry, Tracking, and Command), but has also attracted the落地 of several leading domestic commercial space companies.

Currently, Sichuan is actively positioning itself from the perspective of the entire industrial chain to seize the initiative.

First, regarding the rocket segment, Sichuan has become an important base for攻坚 reusable rocket technology.

On January 19, good news came from Shuangliu District, Chengdu: the i-Space reusable liquid launch vehicle production headquarters base project is expected to be completed in December this year, with a designed capacity of 20 rockets per year. Notably, this base focuses precisely on the core technologies of reusable liquid launch vehicles, with the reusable portion accounting for nearly 70% of the rocket's total value.

Simultaneously,记者 learned from Galactic Energy, based in Ziyang, that although the first flight test mission of its Ceres-1 rocket failed, the main engine (CQ-90) for its larger reusable launch vehicle, the ZQ-2, recently completed a full-system hot-fire test, with key parameters reaching domestically advanced levels, laying the foundation for its subsequent maiden flight.

Currently, these two companies with布局 in Sichuan, along with Landspace, Zhongke Aerospace, and Space Pioneer, have entered the IPO赛道, becoming core forces in the eyes of the capital market vying for the title of "first commercial space stock on the STAR Market."

Investors who have long followed commercial space坦言 that the sector is characterized by high risk, high technology intensity, and heavy reliance on industrial chain coordination. Sichuan possesses a relatively complete aerospace industrial system and supporting capabilities, which can, to some extent, address industry pain points such as insufficient upstream-downstream coordination and information asymmetry, providing support for key technological breakthroughs and scaled delivery.

Directions for发力: Accelerating全链条布局 and focusing on building a Western Commercial Space Port.

Currently, China has only several hundred low-earth orbit satellites in orbit. It is projected that tens of thousands will be deployed by around 2030, which意味着 that demand for infrastructure such as satellite payloads, ground stations, and satellite communication terminals will continue to expand, providing Sichuan with clear directions for发力.

For example, the inter-satellite and satellite-ground microwave communication terminal developed by the No.10 Research Institute of China Electronics Technology Group Corporation (CETC) in Chengdu has already been applied in major commercial satellite projects, serving as a "data bridge" between satellites and between satellites and the ground. Such equipment is a "rigid demand" for satellite data transmission, with strong future demand in areas like emergency management, vehicle and shipborne communications. Sichuan's technological积累 in this niche segment is rapidly transforming into an industrial advantage.

Compared to rockets and satellites, launch sites have a lower profile but are critical hubs connecting the upstream and downstream segments. It is widely believed within the industry that domestic launch sites are generally operating at full capacity, and launch capability remains a significant bottleneck constraining the development of commercial spaceflight.

Bottlenecks also represent opportunities. Sichuan is home to the Xichang Satellite Launch Center. The "Sichuan Province High-Quality Development Action Plan for Commercial Spaceflight (2025-2030)" issued last year listed the construction of a Western Commercial Space Port as its primary task, which is considered its most prominent highlight.

Relevant government department heads believe that the Western Commercial Space Port can not only弥补 the regional launch capacity gap but also play a "leading role" like "pulling the ox by the nose," attracting the集聚 of upstream and downstream enterprises and driving the coordinated development of the entire industrial chain. Currently, Sichuan is accelerating the construction of the Western Commercial Space Port, focusing on the entire industrial chain and expanding application scenarios across multiple fields.

Furthermore, addressing development shortcomings, industry experts suggest further increasing support through industrial funds and细分 policies, encouraging investment from large local enterprises, supporting the落地 of leading domestic commercial space companies, and promoting the集聚 of front-end design and back-end application segments of leading enterprises like Zhongke Aerospace and Galactic Energy to Sichuan. Through building industrial ecosystems and strengthening chains, the aim is to continuously promote innovation and development in the commercial space sector.

The new year finds China's commercial space sector standing at a new starting point. For Sichuan, this presents both challenges and, even more so, opportunities.