Beijing races to get satellite hub centre up and ready
The core area of Beijing's Satellite Town, designed as a hub for satellite manufacturers and operators, will be completed in the second half of 2026, state-owned media Beijing Daily reported on Saturday. Commercial launches now account for more than 60 percent of all space launches and a number of companies are rushing to go public, the newspaper said. Gao Yibin, head of the strategic research at Future Aerospace, said that – with the acceleration of launch approvals, the localisation of components and the continued injection of capital by industrial funds – China's trillion-yuan commercial space market is moving towards standardisation and scale. “The accelerated implementation of scenarios such as low-Earth orbit constellation networking, satellite internet, space computing power and 6G air-space-ground integration suggests sustained growth is expected in 2026,” said Gao. Beijing's Satellite Town will provide the support to develop the aerospace industry by fostering industrial clustering and enabling talent, capital and technology to flow efficiently. (Reuters) Edited by Thomas McAlinden