A Millennial’s Tiny Satellites Are Helping China Advance in the Space Race

A space race known for giant rockets and billion-dollar exploration vehicles is shrinking to the size of a Cheerios box, and that’s opening a launch window for entrepreneurs like Chinese millennial Yang Feng.

Yang’s startup, Spacety, builds microsatellites and then has them shot into orbit, offering to provide Wi-Fi service on airplanes or eyes into the farthest reaches of space—at prices starting around $16,000.

“There are so many niche markets for satellites,” Yang, the 36-year-old chief executive officer, said in his office at a Chinese Academy of Sciences complex in Beijing, with one of his machines sitting on the table in front of him. “I want to do low Earth orbit satellites in the areas that state-owned enterprises are too big to reach.”

China is deliberately opening its ambitious and secretive space program to private enterprise, spawning homegrown rocketeers One Space Technology Co. and Landspace Technology Corp. to compete with similar efforts by billionaires Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos.

There’s also a blossoming of lesser-known businesses that make small satellites—some weighing less than 3 pounds—to put atop those rockets. Spacety, Zhuhai Orbita Aerospace Science and Technology Co. and Beijing Galaxy Space Internet Technology Co. routinely send imaging and data-collecting machines into orbit as they compete for pieces of a global satellite industry worth $269 billion.

Those efforts are attracting seed money from venture-capital funds associated with technology titan Lenovo Group Ltd. and the founder of Xiaomi Corp. as China starts challenging microsatellite makers in the U.S., Japan and Germany.

“If China can put its industrial capacity into small satellites as it does with global consumer electronics, then it could be the dominant small satellite manufacturer in a few years,” said John Holst, a senior analyst with the non-profit Space Foundation in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. had a small satellite powered by Beijing-based Commsat Technology Development Co. launched to help its multibillion-dollar Singles’ Day sales promotion, and Tencent Holdings Ltd. invested in Satellogic, a startup with offices in San Francisco that wants to build a constellation providing high-resolution imagery and analytics.

The military and government still dominate China’s space program, which has an $8 billion annual budget that’s second only to NASA’s, according to the Space Foundation. The nation plans to explore the moon and Mars, and build its own orbiting station for astronauts, according to state media.

President Xi Jinping allowed private enterprise into the space business in 2014 to nurture the development of high-technology industries that could produce sophisticated semiconductors, artificial intelligence and small satellites, sometimes called cubesats.

There are about 60 Chinese companies in the commercial space industry, said Blaine Curcio, founder of Hong Kong-based Orbital Gateway Consulting.

“In terms of satellite design and manufacture, China still lags behind the U.S. and EU,” Curcio said in an email. “However, this also is changing fairly quickly.”

Manufacturing satellites generated $15.5 billion in global revenue last year—a 10 percent increase from the year before, according to the Washington-based Satellite Industry Association. Satellite services such as telecommunications, Earth observation and science generated $128.7 billion.

Those services are essential in the biggest market for internet users, smartphone buyers and electric-car drivers, and what is expected to be the leading air-travel market within five years.

To be sure, the government will maintain control of what it considers the most-sensitive aspects of its space program, and that may squelch future growth for these startups, Curcio said. Yet there’s opportunity in low Earth orbit, defined as between 80 and 2,000 kilometers (1,243 miles) in the air.

Yang, who studied engineering at Beihang University, renowned for its aeronautics program, worked in the energy and information-technology industries before founding Spacety in 2016.

He was inspired by U.S.-based disruptors such as Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corp. and satellite makers like Planet Labs Inc., and now he wants to disrupt them.

Spacety’s investors include Lenovo’s venture-capital arm Legend Capital, Matrix Partners China and SAIF Partners, according to its website. The company, which has a factory in Hunan province, is valued at about $100 million, Yang said.

“The U.S. may have better companies than us, but I’ve only been here for three years,” said Yang, whose team sometimes dons flight jackets with patches commemorating each launch.

Spacety has paid to launch more than 10 satellites since 2016 for clients including company-backed in-flight Wi-Fi provider LaserFleet, Chengdu-based AI satellite maker ADA-Space, Tsinghua University and the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Its services include carrying instruments so Tsinghua scientists can study gamma ray bursts and potentially providing Earth imaging for insurance companies to analyze losses from natural disasters.

“I don’t want to just be a manufacturer,” Yang said. “I want to build my own network for others to use. I want to be the platform.”

The company, founded in 2000 to make semiconductors for the aerospace industry, didn’t reply to a request for comment.

Galaxy Space, founded in 2016, wants to put hundreds of its satellites into low Earth orbit to provide global 5G coverage, according to state media. Investors include Shunwei Capital Partners, the firm backed by Xiaomi billionaire founder Lei Jun; Morningside Venture Capital; and IDG Capital, the state-run Global Times reported last month.

Beijing-based China Head Aerospace Technology Co. plans to create a 48-satellite constellation called Skywalker with applications for shipping, earthquake monitoring and imagery. The company, which built a 45-kilogram (99-pound) satellite launched last year, has partners in several countries participating in China’s “Belt and Road” initiative, including South Africa.

“The China market is opening much more now than versus five years ago,” said Kammy Brun, who oversees global business development at Head. “We’re looking for ambitious plans and international partnerships.”