Shandong province is channeling its efforts into establishing a premier hub for the commercial space industry, aligning with the strategic blueprint of the 15th Five-Year Plan, which prioritizes the growth of strategic emerging sectors like aerospace.
A key pillar of this initiative is the Oriental Spaceport in Yantai, the nation's sole commercial sea-launch base, operational since May 2020. For an extended period, the port faced operational inefficiencies, often experiencing delays where satellites awaited rockets and vice versa, due to a lack of integrated development across the rocket and satellite sectors, which hampered launch efficiency and overall benefits.
Today, the Oriental Spaceport hosts a diverse array of enterprises, spanning state-owned, private, and central government entities, all contributing to a complete value chain that encompasses R&D, manufacturing, sea launches, and satellite data applications. To tackle the sector's bottlenecks this year, Shandong has established a provincial-level coordination team dedicated to commercial aerospace. This team has rolled out targeted support policies covering capital, talent, and supply chain needs, fostering a specialized, market-oriented, and interconnected industrial ecosystem that is accelerating the formation of a maritime aerospace cluster.
The Spaceport has now fully integrated satellite manufacturing, rocket final assembly, sea launches, and data application services. The park is home to over 40 companies, having attracted 38.5 billion yuan in investment. A notable milestone was recently achieved when the Jielong-3 carrier rocket successfully deployed the Dongfang Huiyan hyperspectral 01 and 02 satellites, equipped with high-performance AI inference and computing capabilities, into orbit. This mission marked the first complete in-space validation of the nation's space computing technology and represented a historic full industrial loop for the port, covering satellite, rocket, and vessel operations.
To further propel high-quality development in the commercial space sector, Shandong is also hosting regular industrial matchmaking conferences this year. These events have already led to the signing of numerous projects, including initiatives for satellite-rocket industrial integration and financial support for the sector, with a cumulative contract value reaching 63.5 billion yuan. Looking ahead, the province aims to achieve an annual production capacity of 100 launch vehicles and 150 commercial satellites by 2027, targeting a commercial space industry scale of 50 billion yuan.