2024 Yearender: China’s space sector soars to new heights, setting new goals
During the 75th International Astronautical Congress (IAC) held in October 2024 in Milan, Italy, a remarkable exhibit of "extraterrestrial material" caught the eyes of international attendees - a grayish, seemingly unattractive piece of dirt, yet it marked the first global display of the first sample collected from the far side of the moon.
Guests gathered around the display case, some leaning in for a closer look and others taking photos to commemorate the moment when they were finally able to see the true appearance of lunar regolith.
This remarkable feat was accomplished by China's Chang'e-6 mission in June 2024, showcasing the country's steadily advancing aerospace capabilities that earned international recognition. Yet, this is just one of many significant accomplishments China's space sector has delivered this year.
In 2024, driven by the "dual engine" of its "national team" and the booming commercial space sector, China has excelled in the number of rocket launches, satellite networking, technological innovation, commercial space development and international cooperation, Tan Yonghua, a senior expert of China's Academy of Aerospace Liquid Propulsion Technology, told the Global Times.
On December 18, the Chinese Academy of Engineering released the "Global Engineering Frontiers 2024" report. Among them, the Chang'e-6 mission and China's progress in its low Earth orbit communication satellite constellation were selected as two of the "Top Ten Global Engineering Achievements in 2024" in the aerospace field.
Embracing the future, Tan highlighted the potential of deeper collaboration between the state and private sector, citing the recent adoption of a cargo spacecraft design that was for the first time selected from non-traditional state aerospace entities. "This innovative competitive mechanism not only opens a new chapter in China's aerospace history but also lays the foundation for future low-cost space exploration. At the same time, fully leveraging the potential of private aerospace and integrating it with national capabilities will inject more vitality into China's aerospace endeavors," Tan said.
Highlights of the year
Since the Tiangong Space Station entered its normalized application and operation phase, it welcomed four missions in 2024 - two crewed missions and two cargo supplies - while seeing two crew rotations of some of the youngest faces of the post-90s generation, one of them being China's first female spaceflight engineer.
Most recently, Cai Xuzhe and Song Lingdong, part of the three-person Shenzhou-19 crew, spent more than nine hours spacewalking outside Tiangong on Tuesday, proudly leaving their names in human spaceflight history as they broke the previous duration record for a single extravehicular activity, which was set by NASA astronauts in March 2001, according to a report by space.com.
As for moon exploration and related works, apart from the globally acclaimed Chang'e-6 mission, studies related to Chang'e-5 also saw new advances and breakthroughs in 2024, including the discovery of the sixth new lunar mineral, named Changesite-(Y), which makes China the third country in the world to have identified a new mineral on the lunar surface, according to the Xinhua News Agency.
In the advancement of new rockets, China in December witnessed the maiden flight of the Long March-12, China's most powerful single-core rocket to date. It has potential for reusability and can effectively enhance China's capability to place satellites into sun-synchronous orbits and improve the networking capabilities of low Earth orbit constellations, Kang Guohua, a senior member of the Chinese Society of Astronautics and a professor of Aerospace Engineering at Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, told the Global Times.
In 2024, China actively carried out international cooperation. Dedicated to building an open and shared scientific platform for joint construction, the International Lunar Research Station initiated by China further expanded its "friend circle," so far attracting more than 10 countries and over 40 international institutions to sign cooperation agreements.
A more vibrant commercial space sector
During this year's "Double-11" shopping spree, two tickets for commercial space tourism scheduled for 2027 sold rapidly during a livestream event on China's e-commerce giant Taobao at the end of October. With a price of 1 million yuan ($137 thousand) each, the suborbital manned spacecraft will be launched with reusable carrier rocket Nebula-1 to be developed by private space firm Deep Blue Aerospace.
The event triggered intense discussions across Chinese social media platforms, reflecting an ever-strong passion and expectation that people hold toward the development of the country's commercial space industry.
With the inauguration of the Hainan commercial space launch site, China's first of its kind, the "last piece of the commercial space puzzle" has finally come together - the five essential elements, namely satellite manufacturing, launch services, satellite measurement, satellite utilization and launch facilities, Kang said.
Meanwhile, China's low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite internet constellation was officially unveiled with the Qianfan project taking the lead. Independently developed by Shanghai-based company Spacesail, it aims to establish a network of over 15,000 LEO wide-screen multimedia satellites to provide broadband communication and internet access services, the company said.
On December 5, 2024, the third batch of Qianfan constellation networking satellites was sent into orbit. With a single launch comprising 18 satellites, the total number of the "Chinese version of Starlink" has reached 54 satellites.
Moreover, the technology for reusable rockets continues to advance, as several commercial space companies have successfully completed rocket recovery tests.
However, highlights exist side by side with lessons learned. In July, Tianlong-3, also known as the Chinese "Falcon 9 equivalent," accidentally detached from its launch pad during its static fire test due to structural failure, resulting in an unintended launch. It landed in a hilly area in Central China's Henan Province and caused a fire, Xinhua reported.
"The incident serves as a wake-up call for commercial aerospace, prompting the industry to strengthen the formulation and implementation of regulations and standards," Tan told the Global Times.
Aiming for the moon, Mars, and farther
The China Manned Space Agency in October announced the 2030 target for China's grand lunar crewed landing. In order to achieve this goal, China's crewed lunar rover entered the initial prototype R&D stage in November this year. Other relevant work for the manned lunar landing is progressing smoothly, with the Long March-10 carrier rocket, the Mengzhou manned spacecraft, the Lanyue lunar lander and the lunar landing spacesuit all in the initial sample production and ground testing phases as planned.
Apart from putting humans on the moon, China is planning to build the International Lunar Research Station by around 2035, according to the China National Space Administration. Two missions are expected to lay the groundwork, with the Chang'e-7 mission scheduled in 2026 and the Chang'e-8 mission around 2028.
Not only will there be wireless networks and energy on the moon, but growing vegetables may become feasible, scientists said. With simulated lunar soil bricks sent to space for verification, the development team disclosed that they are considering shaping the base into an egg-shaped habitat on the Earth's neighbor, the Global Times has learned.
Next year, China plans to send a probe to a near-Earth asteroid to retrieve samples as part of the Tianwen-2 mission, with the aim of revealing the formation and evolution process of asteroids and the early history of the solar system.
The Tianwen-3 mission is expected to launch around 2030 to collect Martian samples to study the planet's environment. For the Tianwen-4 mission also scheduled for 2030, China eyes exploring the Jovian system to study the evolutionary history of Jupiter and its moons, and unravel the mysteries of Jupiter's space environment and internal structure, Xinhua reported.