Wuxi fires up commercial satellite development

An image shows the interior of a research facility at Guoyu Starry Sky Technology in Wuxi, Jiangsu province. CHINA DAILY

Six commercial satellites built in the eastern Chinese high-tech hub of Wuxi, Jiangsu province, were launched on Wednesday, marking China's latest efforts to industrialize satellite manufacturing.

The satellites, developed by Guoyu Starry Sky Technology Co Ltd, a subsidiary of Beijing Minospace Technology, were launched aboard the Gravity-1 Y4 rocket off China's east coast.

Shi Changfu, deputy general manager of Guoyu Starry Sky Technology, said: "Successfully delivering six satellites at one time proves the production line has reached a mature stage for mass manufacturing. It marks our transition from customized satellite development to large-scale production."

The milestone reflects a broader shift underway in China's commercial space industry, where companies are racing to lower manufacturing costs and shorten delivery times in order to deploy large constellations for remote sensing, communications and navigation.

The factory focuses on satellites weighing between 200 and 500 kilograms and is capable of producing more than 150 satellites annually, covering optical remote sensing, synthetic aperture radar, low-Earth-orbit communications, and navigation enhancement missions.

According to the company, conventional satellite integration and testing typically requires three to four months, while the automated production line has reduced that to one to two months. For standardized models, manufacturing could theoretically be completed in as little as 25 days.

China's commercial space industry has expanded rapidly as the nation encourages private investment in sectors once dominated by State-owned aerospace groups.

According to CCID Consulting, China had more than 600 commercial space companies by the end of 2025, with the industry's core output exceeding 1 trillion yuan ($139 billion). Commercial satellites accounted for 311 of the country's orbital launches that year, or about 84 percent of the total.

Unlike Beijing or Shanghai, which benefit from long-established aerospace research institutes, or launch centers, Wuxi entered the sector only in recent years despite having neither a major space research base nor a launch site.

But Wuxi had attracted 325 companies across the commercial space supply chain by the end of 2025, including national manufacturing champions and listed firms.

Song Xiang, an official from the Wuxi Bureau of Industry and Information Technology, said the city's manufacturing ecosystem allows many critical satellite and rocket components to be sourced locally within a 30-minute drive.

"What appears to be something built from scratch is actually supported by Wuxi's strong industrial supply chain," Song said. "Local companies understand the logic of the commercial space industry and can respond extremely quickly."