China space authorities name Elon Musk’s SpaceX an ‘unprecedented challenge’

SpaceX was founded by Elon Musk in 2002 to cut launch costs and make space flight more affordable.

Its products include the Falcon 9 rocket and the Dragon spacecraft. SpaceX is also developing Starship, a superheavy lift, fully-reusable launch system, and the internet satellite constellation Starlink.

Inspired by SpaceX, CASC and other aerospace actors in China have been working on their own versions of Starship and Starlink – the Long March 9 superheavy rocket and Guo Wang Network – to compete with the US company.

Of the 180-plus successful launches of 2022, 61 were conducted by SpaceX’s Falcon rockets, compared to CASC’s Long March rocket family’s 53. In country rankings, the US was in the lead with 78 launches, followed by China at 64 and Russia at 21.

SpaceX’s vice-president Bill Gerstenhaber told a Senate hearing in October that the company has been working “diligently” to maintain US leadership in space in the face of competition from China.

“Globally, Falcon is the only vehicle system able to keep pace with a similar high cadence of launch in China. From a mass-to-orbit perspective, Falcon alone outperforms China three to one,” he said.

According to Gerstenhaber, without SpaceX’s fast innovation, China would already have outperformed the US.

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“Excluding SpaceX, China launched nearly three times more than the rest of US industry combined in the first half of 2023, and carried almost eight times more mass to orbit than all other US launch operators,” he said.

The China Space News commentary reiterated the timeline for the authorities’ next priorities, including landing the first Chinese astronauts on the moon and returning rock samples from Mars, both slated for no later than 2030.

“By 2045, China will become a world-leading space power and use innovative technologies in the space sector to drive its overall development,” the article said.

“The goal is to nurture a community with a shared future for humankind and contribute to the advancement of human civilisation.”