HELSINKI — China’s human spaceflight agency has selected two proposals to develop spacecraft for low-cost space station resupply missions, echoing earlier moves by NASA.

The China Manned Space Engineering Office (CMSEO) last year issued a call for proposals for low-cost cargo transportation systems to serve the Tiangong space station. Four proposals from 10 submissions were selected to enter a detailed design phase in September 2023.

Now two teams have won, CMSEO announced at a press conference on October 29. The agency selected the Qingzhou cargo spacecraft from the Innovation Academy for Microsatellites of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (IAMCAS) and the Haolong cargo space shuttle proposal from the Chengdu Aircraft Design Institute of the Aviation Industry Corporation ( AVIC).

The first will notably be launched on a liquid oxygen and kerosene rocket Lijian-2 CAS Space, whose launch is scheduled for the second half of 2025. CAS Space is a spin-off of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Although close to state-owned CAS, this is the first time that a seemingly commercial space company in China has participated in the national space station project.

AVIC, although engaged to a limited extent in some previous national space activities, is not a traditional player in China’s space ecosystem.

“Through this selection, scientific research institutes and commercial space companies outside of traditional space companies were attracted to participate in the development of flight products such as crewed space engineering ships and rockets,” said Lin Xiqiang, deputy director and spokesperson of CMSEO in October. 29.

This development is “conducive to the construction of a healthy, harmless and dynamic new model of competition and development of human spaceflight, further reducing the operating costs of the space station and promoting the rapid, orderly and healthy development of the “commercial aerospace,” Lin added.

Requirements for the low-cost cargo transport system include the ability to send at least 1,800 kilograms into low Earth orbit. Additionally, it must offer a price of no more than 120 million yuan ($17.2 million) per 1,000 kilograms delivered. The spacecraft is also expected to be capable of controlled reentry and capable of disposing of more than 2,000 kilograms of waste during reentry.

The proposals from the China Academy of Space Technology (CAST), which developed China’s space station modules, cargo ships and Tianzhou crewed spacecraft, and the country’s other major spacecraft developer, Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology (SAST), were the two unsuccessful proposals. at this stage.

China completed the three-module T-shaped Tiangong space station in late 2022. It aims to keep the space station constantly occupied and operational for at least a decade. It is currently using the Tianzhou cargo spacecraft to resupply and resupply Tiangong. The Tianzhou spacecraft burns up upon re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere and plunges into the Pacific Ocean. The Shenzhou crew’s spacecraft, meanwhile, have limited capacity to bring payloads back to Earth.

CMSEO first reported its opening to commercial freight services in Tiangong in early 2021. This likely led to the creation of commercial companies such as AZSPACE and Interspace Explore.

China has favored a commercial space sector since the end of 2014 and has gradually broadened the scope of activities open to these entities.

A number of commercial launch companies aim to debut reusable medium transport rockets in 2025, as cities and provinces attempt to attract and support commercial space activity and companies with range of action plans and incentives.

Tomas Hrozensky, a senior fellow at the European Space Policy Institute (ESPI), told SpaceNews in 2023 that the steps taken by the CMSEO clearly indicate that China is seeking to replicate the approach that has brought major success to NASA .

NASA’s Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) program awarded contracts in late 2008 to Orbital Sciences Corp. and SpaceX. The first cargo flights to the International Space Station in 2012.

China is also seeking to enlarge Tiangong with other modules in the years to come. This includes a Hubble-class co-orbiting space telescope that can dock with the space station for maintenance, repairs and potential upgrades.

With the selection of new cargo spacecraft and the gradual opening of national projects to new players, China seems to be laying the foundations for a more dynamic and competitive space ecosystem.

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