China’s Space Boom: 2025 Market Report Reveals a $350 Billion Space & Satellite Superpower
Historical Overview of China’s Space & Satellite Industry China’s journey to the stars began during the Cold War. In 1958, Mao Zedong’s government launched the “Two Bombs, One Satellite” program to develop nuclear bombs, missiles, and satellites indigenously warontherocks.com. This led to China’s first satellite – Dong Fang Hong 1 (“The East is Red”) – successfully launched into orbit in 1970, making China the world’s fifth spacefaring nation warontherocks.com. The early decades of China’s space effort were entirely state-run, focused on national security and basic communications. From 1970 through the 2000s, state-owned enterprises steadily put dozens of satellites into orbit for