Systems Win: Commercial Space Moves into New Phase

When China's 2026 Government Work Report positioned aviation and aerospace as an "emerging pillar industry" for the first time and explicitly called for "accelerating the development of satellite Internet," the developmental coordinates of China's commercial space were quietly reset.

A person in charge at Dongsheng Space told Science and Technology Daily that the industry is undergoing a profound paradigm shift — from extensive hardware scale expansion characterized by single-satellite orbit insertion and quantity stacking, to a new stage of refined system-capability competition centered on integrated communication-computing-remote sensing, on-orbit intelligent processing, and ecosystem collaboration.

In the new stage of commercial aerospace, satellites are no longer just isolated pieces of space hardware; they are becoming intelligent nodes in a space-air-ground integrated network. Rockets are no longer just one-off transport vehicles; they are being upgraded into Earth-space logistics systems that support routine deployment. Ground stations are no longer just simple signal-receiving facilities; they are evolving into hubs of a satellite-terrestrial integrated computing power network.

This is not merely an iteration of technical roadmaps, but a reconstruction of industrial logic. In the new phase of industrial evolution, satellite Internet and space computing power are becoming two closely watched fields.

Satellite Internet is the core physical foundation for building an integrated space-air-ground information network. According to industry forecasts, China's satellite manufacturing capacity is expected to rise from 400 to 2,000 satellites per year within five years, while satellite costs could fall from 50,000 RMB/kg to 20,000 RMB/kg. As large-scale constellation networking transitions from technical feasibility to economic viability, the commercial closed loop for satellite Internet is taking shape at an accelerating pace.

Space computing power is expected to become the key source of incremental growth driving the commercial space industry's leap in value over the next decade. Currently, space computing power construction costs are about eight times those on the ground. However, with the maturation of satellite lightweighting, R&D intensification, and rocket reuse technologies, the industry anticipates a substantial reduction in related costs within five years. This steep drop in the cost curve is driving the industry to transcend concept validation and accelerate toward a new stage of commercial deployment that integrates on-orbit intelligent processing with space-ground computing power networks.

As an infrastructure-type industry, commercial space has a value cycle built on three mutually reinforcing elements — capability, scale and application. Technological capability is the starting point, production scale is the supporting foundation, and application deployment is the key to value realization. Only through mutual reinforcement and spiral evolution can the industry's commercial value be realized.

As the person in charge at Dongsheng Space put it, the core competitive moat in the new stage of commercial space lies in the contest of systematic engineering capabilities. Companies must establish a closed-loop R&D system guided by overall design and featuring upstream-downstream collaboration, driving aerospace manufacturing from customization toward industrialized mass production. Only in this way can they precisely meet the hard requirements of 10,000-satellite-class mega-constellations, thereby building an insurmountable industrial moat in the trillion-dollar market for future space-air-ground infrastructure.

Source: Science and Technology Daily