Biweekly Brain Droppings
A "High-Speed Laser Diamond" Constellation, the First LM-8A departs for Wenchang, and some Yangtze River Delta Supply Chain Findings
Dear Readers,
This week, our first freemium Biweekly Brain Droppings. A reminder that the end of this month will be the usual Monthly Monitoring sent in full to all subscribers, and sometime between now and then will be a “Year in Review” freemium piece.
Without further ado, diving into this week’s ongoings:
The first LM-8A departed from Tianjin for Wenchang with expected launch in H1 2025. The rocket is notably optimized to launch batches of satellites for large constellations, and so will clearly be a pretty significant part of China’s plans to launch a large NGSO communications constellation (Chinese version of Starlink). The journey from Tianjin to Hainan is far indeed, but by sea is vastly easier than the trip by train and truck to inland launch sites like Xichang.
Chinese space industry blogger/news source Small Space Ant started a series of articles on the leading financiers in China’s commercial space sector. The intro article linked above provides an overview of who is investing and how often. Mentioned in the intro and also profiled separately, the top three investors are a perfect representation of the Holy Trinity of benefactors in Chinese commercial space (Government, CAS/Academia, and Private Sector). Namely Shenzhen Venture Capital (a city-owned fund in one of China’s wealthiest cities), CASSTAR Capital (a Chinese Academy of Sciences affiliated fund), and Essential Capital (a largely private VC with a focus on a variety of cutting-edge industries).
A batch of 5 “High Speed Laser Diamond Constellation” satellites, built by Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT) commercial spinoff HITSat, was launched on a LM-2D from Jiuquan on 12 December. A low-key launch, we can derive a few details.
This is the coming out party for HITSat. Founded in December 2020, HITSat has now built ~15 satellites at an industrial base in Harbin, in China’s Northeast. HITSat is likely to benefit from similar tailwinds to CGSTL, which until some recent challenges arose to become arguably the world’s leading EO company from its base in Changchun, in China’s rust belt Northeast.
Located in Harbin, the largest city in the same Northeast, HITSat is likely to get support from the government coffers of Harbin (and possibly Heilongjiang Province), alongside the technological knowhow and other support (including funding) of HIT, one of China’s best universities. It’s too soon to tell, but HITSat has all the right things going for it.
Digressing, as a manufacturer HITSat is emerging as a highly competent and relevant player, having built and launched 12 satellites this year for multiple customers including the AirSat constellation (based in Shandong) and the Xi’an Aerospace Investment satellites built for the CAS Xi’an (fairly credible government clients). The customer of the most recent 5 “Diamond Constellation” was less clear, though there were some details about the satellites.