According to information revealed at the Commercial Spacecraft and Application Industry Chain Co-action Conference recently held in Shanghai, China plans to strategically develop more "space+" future industries. As the designated "chain leader" for China's commercial spacecraft and application industry chain, China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) will focus on implementing the national strategy for commercial space development during the 15th Five-Year Plan period. It will leverage its role as a central state-owned enterprise in strategic guidance and ecosystem building to collaborate with upstream, midstream, and downstream companies in the industrial chain. The aim is to jointly plan new developments, build new capabilities, and establish a new ecosystem through the implementation of five major projects.
One key project involves fostering the development of future industries. This includes planning and advancing new frontiers such as space digital-intelligent infrastructure, space resource utilization, space traffic management, and space tourism. Regarding space digital-intelligent infrastructure, plans are to construct gigawatt-level facilities and create a new integrated space architecture combining cloud, edge, and terminal capabilities. This will achieve deep integration of computing power, storage capacity, and transmission power, enabling applications like "space data processed in space," "earth data processed in space," and "collaborative space-earth computing."
In the area of space resource utilization, a major special project named "Tiangong Kaiwu" will undergo feasibility studies. A comprehensive experimental and ground support system for space resource development will be established, focusing on key technological breakthroughs. These include prospecting small celestial bodies, intelligent autonomous extraction, low-cost transportation, and in-orbit processing.
For space traffic management, efforts will concentrate on tackling key technologies for monitoring, early warning, and removing space debris. This will lay a solid foundation for China to take a proactive role in shaping international rules for space traffic management and ensure the safe operation of space infrastructure.
Concerning space tourism, the focus will be on accelerating the iterative development of suborbital and orbital space tourism vehicles. This involves completing relevant unmanned or manned flight tests and establishing a comprehensive operational system for space tourism. The goal is to achieve regular, flight-like operations for suborbital space tourism and gradually develop orbital space tourism capabilities.
The Commercial Spacecraft and Application Industry Chain Co-action Conference was held under the guidance of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) and the China National Space Administration (CNSA). It was jointly hosted by CASC and the Chinese Society of Astronautics (CSA). The event brought together over 400 participants from various national ministries, central state-owned enterprises, local governments including Tianjin, Shanghai, and Hainan, as well as research institutes, universities, commercial aerospace companies, financial institutions, and relevant industry associations.