ExPace

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ExPace Technology Corporation
航天 科 工 火箭 技术 有限公司
legal form GmbH
founding February 16, 2016
Seat Wuhan (headquarters)
management Zhang Di
Number of employees 1300 (2018)
Branch Space travel

The CASIC missile technology GmbH ( Chinese  航天科工火箭技术有限公司 , Pinyin Hángtiān Kegong Huǒjiàn Jishu Yǒuxiàn Gongsi ) abroad better known as ExPace Technology Corporation is a subsidiary of the China Space Sanjiang Group Corporation , which in turn is a subsidiary of the Chinese arms company China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation (CASIC) is. ExPace GmbH is headquartered on the National Space Industry Base (武汉 国家 航天 产业 基地) in the eastern Xinzhou district of Wuhan ProvinceHubei , the final assembly of the Kuaizhou rockets it manufactures is currently (June 2020) still taking place on Base 066 in Yuan'an County .

history

Starting in 2009, the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation had developed the three-stage solid-propellant rocket Kuaizhou-1 from the unsuccessful Kaituozhe 1 launch vehicle in several intermediate steps . On September 25, 2013 and November 21, 2014, this rocket for the National Center for Remote Sensing (国家 遥感 中心) successfully launched an Earth observation satellite developed by the Harbin Polytechnic into polar orbit. As a result, on February 16, 2016, the China Space Sanjiang Group Corporation, a subsidiary of CASIC that was involved in the consortium that built the Kaituozhe missiles in the early 2000s, with a share capital of 300 million yuan, acquired the "CASIC missile technology GmbH "founded. The capital came solely from the Sanjiang Group, the legal form of the new company was the so-called " GmbH in state ownership ", i. H. The sole shareholder was - through the Sanjiang Group and CASIC - the Commission for the Control and Administration of State Assets .

The task of Raketentechnologie GmbH was initially to develop the Kuaizhou-1 into a four-stage launcher, the last stage of which has a multi-ignitable liquid rocket engine . When the Sanjiang Group registered the company with the responsible State Market Surveillance Authority of the Xinzhou district (武汉 市 新洲区 市场 监督 管理局), it specified a much broader field as the object of the company : planning, development, manufacture and sale of launch vehicles; Spacecraft design and manufacture; Execution of commercial launches on behalf of Chinese and foreign clients. The market surveillance authority was particularly bothered at the latter point. Then, and until now (as of 2020), the China Great Wall Industry Corporation , a subsidiary of the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation , was and is the only company with the Chinese government's permission to arrange commercial launches for foreign customers. After the intervention of the then Central Office for Industry and Commerce (国家 工商 行政管理 总局) in Beijing, CASIC Raketentechnologie GmbH was finally able to register.

Hu Xiaotao (胡晓涛), the company's managing director, stated in talks with the press in April 2016 that negotiations were in progress with around a dozen customers and that the first launch of the new Kuaizhou-1A rocket should take place that year . In fact, the launch with three satellites took place on January 9, 2017. Hu Xiaotao was surprisingly precise when the launch date was announced. However, what he told a journalist for the Cantonal Evening Newspaper, a publication of the CCP's Guangdong National Association , in June 2016 about the flexibility of the missiles the company made, was not true. Military solid rockets, such as those manufactured by the Sanjiang Group, can be launched with mobile launching ramps from any sufficiently paved surface, if necessary from a country road or a basketball court. The Kuaizhou-1A, however, has an upper stage with a liquid propulsion system and is dependent on the cosmodrome infrastructure for assembling and checking the payloads, as well as for telemetry, orbit tracking and control . So far (as of 2020) all ExPace GmbH starts have been from institutions of the People's Liberation Army .

When ExPace GmbH was founded in April 2016, they were already working on a successor model for the Kuaizhou-1A, the Kuaizhou-11 , which should transport payloads of up to 1000 kg into a 700 km high sun-synchronous orbit . For comparison: the Kuaizhou-1A can only put 200 kg into such an orbit. The company's share capital was nowhere near enough for such a project. According to the Corporation Act of the People's Republic of China, it is not permitted to raise public capital for the establishment of a GmbH. Therefore, ExPace waited almost a year and only contacted more than 100 institutional investors in January 2017, after the successful maiden flight of the Kuaizhou-1A . With just under 20 of these investors, the negotiations became so concrete that they had ExPace GmbH carry out a due diligence . On September 25, 2017, CASIC, as the parent company, approved a capital increase, and this was reported to the Shanghai United Assets and Equity Exchange (上海 联合 产权 交易所 or Shanghai United Assets and Equity Exchange ). In advance, ExPace GmbH had discussed very ambitious plans, including space tourism. In the end, eight institutional investors were found who announced their intention to invest a total of 1.2 billion yuan at an event held in the building of the property rights trading center on December 18, 2017. In fact, significantly less was invested in the end and the share capital only increased to 700 million yuan. Since the Sanjiang Group is still the main shareholder of ExPace GmbH with 485 million yuan, personnel matters etc. will continue to be handled by the Commission for the Control and Administration of State Assets.

Business areas

The main business area of ​​ExPace GmbH is commercial satellite launches with self-developed launch vehicles of the Kuaizhou series. So far, these are still being manufactured on the 066 base in Yuan'an County in the prefecture-level city of Yichang , where the Sanjiang Group is also building the Dongfeng 15 short-range ballistic missile . Since military production has priority, there are repeated delays in the Kuaizhou missiles. In May 2017, ExPace had therefore already started to build its own final assembly hall with a production capacity of 20 rockets per year on the national space industry base in Wuhan. The facility itself should go into operation in February 2020. However , this was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic , which hit Hubei Province particularly hard . At the beginning of August 2020, construction began on an additional 10,000 m² factory hall, where the launch and measurement vehicles for the Kuaizhou rockets are to be serviced and, if necessary, repaired. This facility should be completed by the end of March 2021.

In addition to its actual function - transporting satellites - ExPace also offers its rockets as an advertising medium; For a fee, companies can have their logo and short advertising messages painted on the outer shell of the rocket. For example, when a Kuaizhou 1A with two communications satellites was launched on May 12, 2020, the Guangzhou Automobile Group used the opportunity to advertise the Trumpchi GS 4 SUV of its subsidiary GAC Motor on the rocket .

With this business model, ExPace is in direct competition with the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation , which emerged on July 1, 1999 together with CASIC from the umbrella company for the space industry. The also very reliable solid rockets of the Changzheng 11 series bring similar payloads into the same orbits as the Kuaizhou rockets, and they are also used as advertising media, for example during a sea launch on June 5, 2019 by the Great Wall Automobile for the Luxury SUVs from their Wey brand . However, since there is more demand for launch opportunities in China than launch vehicles can be produced - the launch agency China Great Wall Industry Corporation is usually fully booked a year in advance - this has not yet been a problem.

The CEO of ExPace GmbH is Zhang Di (张 镝, * 1968), who is also the Deputy CEO of the Sanjiang Group. After earning an engineering degree in mechanical engineering from the Beijing Aerospace University in 1990, he initially worked at the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology , where he was involved in the development of the Langer Marsch 3 A launcher . In 2018, ExPace had around 1,300 employees subject to social security contributions. ExPace GmbH does not provide any information on sales and profits, as would be prescribed in Section 8 of the “Preliminary Guidelines for the Publication of Company Information” (企业 信息 公示 暂行条例). Therefore, the Xinzhou District State Market Surveillance Bureau issued an official warning to the company on January 9, 2020.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

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  21. ↑ 李克强 : 企业 信息 公示 暂行条例. In: gov.cn. August 7, 2014, accessed June 30, 2020 (Chinese).
  22. ↑ 航天 科 工 火箭 技术 有限公司. In: qixin.com. Retrieved June 30, 2020 (Chinese).