Promoting High-Quality and Safe Development of Commercial Space Industry

BEIJING, Nov. 26 (Reporter Li Junqiang) — To implement the strategic plans of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council, further support and encourage the high-quality and safe development of commercial space, and provide normative guidance, the China National Space Administration (CNSA) recently issued the *Action Plan for Promoting High-Quality and Safe Development of Commercial Space (2025–2027)* (hereinafter referred to as the Action Plan).

The proposals for the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026–2030) call for "accelerating the cluster development of strategic emerging industries such as new energy, new materials, aerospace, and low-altitude economy." Commercial space serves as a crucial force in advancing the aerospace industry and building China into a strong aerospace nation. In recent years, China's commercial space sector has developed rapidly, with significant improvements in R&D and construction efficiency, continuous growth in industrial scale, and a sustained positive development momentum.

The Action Plan integrates commercial space into the national aerospace development framework, aiming to achieve by 2027 a commercial space industry ecosystem characterized by efficient coordination, safe and orderly research and production, significantly expanded industrial scale, notably enhanced innovation and creativity, coordinated construction and efficient utilization of resources and capabilities, and substantially improved governance capacity. The goal is to essentially realize high-quality development in the commercial space sector.

The Action Plan emphasizes fully leveraging the innovative role of commercial space enterprises as the mainstay, promoting deep integration of technological innovation and industrial innovation; giving full play to the decisive role of the market in resource allocation while better leveraging the role of the government, and strengthening systematic planning and layout across the entire industry chain; improving the policy and regulatory system to create a favorable business environment. The Action Plan outlines 22 key measures across five areas: enhancing innovation and creativity, efficiently utilizing capabilities and resources, fostering industrial growth and expansion, improving industry management and services, and strengthening full-chain safety supervision.

Regarding enhancing innovation and creativity, the plan involves competitively opening national research projects, making civil aerospace research programs and basic research topics accessible to commercial space entities, and encouraging their active participation in the development and construction of civil aerospace projects and national major programs. It also promotes the establishment of mechanisms for applying state-funded scientific and technological achievements in the commercial space sector, facilitating the broader adoption of national aerospace advancements.

In terms of efficiently utilizing capabilities and resources, the plan promotes the open sharing of national research and testing facilities and equipment. While ensuring safe usage, it calls for increased openness and sharing of large-scale testing facilities and equipment—such as national civil tracking stations, receiving stations, calibration fields, validation fields, rocket engine test stands, and space environment testing equipment—with commercial space entities.

To foster industrial growth and expansion, the plan encourages commercial space entities to engage in corresponding segments of the aerospace industry chain, strengthening satellite and launch vehicle manufacturing, expanding application services, enhancing tracking, telemetry, and command (TT&C) operational capabilities, and promoting high-quality development of the commercial space industry. It specifically supports commercial space entities in developing new technologies and products, as well as exploring new application scenarios.

In improving industry management and services, the plan calls for accelerating the legislative process of the National Space Law to clarify the role and status of commercial space in national aerospace development, ensuring its healthy and sustainable growth. It also aims to refine market access mechanisms for commercial space, establish a negative list for market access, and reasonably adjust relevant qualification requirements.

Regarding strengthening full-chain safety supervision, the plan seeks to gradually establish a foundational commercial space safety supervision system with clear responsibilities, distinct divisions of labor, effective measures, and long-term effectiveness. It also involves researching and establishing a commercial space safety supervision service platform to enable the informatization of enterprise information registration, dynamic risk monitoring for important equipment, facilities, and major hazard sources, reporting of significant activity information, and real-time safety risk assessment.