Chinese cab driver

Following India, China has also entered the race in the space transport services market. At midnight on Monday, the Long March 3-B launch vehicle launched from the Xichang Cosmodrome (Sichuan Province in the southwest of the country). It launched the Nigerian telecommunications satellite NIGCOMSAT-1 into geostationary orbit. This is the first commercial launch by a Chinese rocket. Moreover, the device itself was created using technologies developed in China. When concluding the contract, Beijing also pledged to build a center in the Nigerian capital of Abuja to monitor the operation of the satellite. The second similar ground complex is located in western China, in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.

Competition in the space transport services market is increasing almost every month. At the end of April, the first commercial launch of an Indian rocket was celebrated with great fanfare: an Italian satellite was launched into orbit from the Sriharikota cosmodrome ( for more details, see “Vremya Novostei” dated April 25 of this year ) . But the Chinese went further than their southern neighbors: if Delhi provided only transport services (the device itself was made in Europe), then the Nigerians received the entire turnkey service - the rocket, the satellite, and the control system.

But not only this is impressive: the Xinhua news agency, citing an anonymous representative of the PRC space agency, voiced truly Napoleonic business plans. According to him, China has about 30 orders for the delivery of foreign satellites into orbit. If the official did not express wishful thinking, then this portfolio of orders not only exceeds the Indian one (in Delhi they are now planning to reach the level of two or three commercial launches per year), but is also approaching the level of market leaders - the USA and Russia.

Let us also note that on May 10, at a meeting of the State Council of the People's Republic of China, the country's next multi-year space program for the period until 2010 was approved. The Chinese now not only intend to develop almost all promising areas of space research - from telecommunications and meteorological satellites to manned flights and lunar exploration, but are also ready to invite private investors. Vice Premier Zeng Peiyan said China is ready to attract non-government investment in the space sector.

There is another important aspect of the launch of NIGCOMSAT-1: the fact that the first Nigerian satellite was launched by the Chinese demonstrates the growing expansion of the Middle Kingdom in third world countries. China is now perhaps one of the most active players on the world stage, including in Africa. For Nigeria, its own telecommunications satellite is not only a leading position in the telecommunications business in Central Africa, but a ticket to the club of serious countries. And it is extremely important that it was the PRC that helped Abuja get it, and not any of the “old” space superpowers.

Vladimir DZAGUTO