Beijing’s Satellite Town to Mass-Produce 500 Satellites a Year

Beijing will finish core construction of Satellite Town by the end of 2026, creating a 145,000-square-meter commercial aerospace hub in Yongfeng, Haidian District, near China Aerospace City. The zone is planned as a shared research and production base for satellite manufacturers and launch firms.

Officials say the pilot area at Zhongguancun No. 1 already hosts more than 40 commercial aerospace companies. The full development is being built to house up to 1,000 firms and to support more than 1,000 commercial launches.

The site will provide shared testing and production services that smaller companies would otherwise have to build themselves. Planned resources include vibration chambers, thermal vacuum testing, separation testing and production lines. At a January conference, authorities outlined the “Beijing Rocket Street” initiative, detailing nine production projects, six satellite programs and six industrial platforms.

Galaxy Space plans a factory in the zone with annual output capacity of 500 low-Earth-orbit satellites. Local officials reported rockets developed by companies based in the area made 24 flights last year and accounted for more than 90% of China’s commercial rocket missions.

Commercial missions now account for a majority of China’s space activity. Last year commercial launches represented over 60% of orbital missions, and China launched 311 commercial satellites, about 84% of the country’s total satellites sent into orbit.

Industry representatives point to faster launch approvals, heavier use of domestically made components and continued investment from industrial funds as drivers of growth. Gao Yibin of Future Aerospace observed, “The commercial space market is moving into standardization and scale,” and highlighted low-Earth-orbit constellations, satellite internet, space-based computing and planned 6G air-space-ground integration.

Private and state-linked companies are increasing China’s launch tempo. Yang Yiqiang, founder of CAS Space, projects roughly 140 orbital launches in 2026, up from 92 last year and 68 in 2024. By comparison, the United States conducted 193 orbital launches in 2025, with SpaceX’s Falcon 9 completing 165 missions.

Deep-space activity is shaping some investment decisions. NASA’s Artemis II completed a 10-day crewed lunar flyby this month, and NASA aims to return astronauts to the lunar surface by early 2028. Wu Weiren, chief designer of China’s lunar program, said, “By 2030, the Chinese people will definitely be able to set foot on the moon. That’s not a problem.”

Analysts say operations at the moon’s south pole could influence technical standards and procedures. Dean Cheng of the Potomac Institute noted that a rotating lunar outpost operated by one country could shape operational norms and data formats.

Officials expect Satellite Town’s shared facilities and production scale to lower unit costs, speed constellation deployment and give smaller firms access to expensive test equipment and streamlined regulatory procedures.