It's not that Feng Yu has never considered buying satellites in China, but China's communication satellites have only reached the third generation of Dongfanghong, which is the internationally advanced level in the early 1990s.
And compared with the advanced satellites in the world at this time, how big is the gap
To put it simply from an economic perspective, the service life of the third-generation Dongfanghong satellite is eight years, while the service life of internationally advanced satellites is fifteen years.
One is that an investment can last for fifteen years, and the other is that an investment can only last eight years. Although the price difference is nearly doubled, the cost of a satellite is not only the cost of the satellite, but also the launch cost
If others launch once, you have to launch twice, and the price of launching satellites is also very high now. Why does China get involved in this field and launch satellites for some foreign countries? Because the lowest profit from launching satellites at this time is more than 20%, and some can even be as high as more than 50%!
In addition to the United States, Russia, Ukraine, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, island countries, India and other countries are vying for this market, and the United States is still the leader.
Next is Russia and Ukraine, because after the disintegration of the Soviet Union, Russia and Ukraine inherited a lot of former Soviet intercontinental missiles. With a slight modification, these can be used as rockets to launch satellites.
Originally, these intercontinental missiles were strategic weapons reduced according to the agreement between the United States and the Soviet Union and could only be kept in the warehouse. This time, they were turned into treasure.
Not to mention that it is zero cost, but it also makes their costs drop rapidly. This is the same in the United States.
With the rise of China, India and other countries, as well as the technological advancement of some European countries, this market is not divided enough. The United States thought for a while that it was not worthwhile to attack Russia. It was poor there, not afraid of war, and indeed relatively strong, so it thought of ways to start sanctioning countries in Europe and Asia.
The first to bear the brunt is China, which is rising the fastest.
At that time, China had just experienced a wave of layoffs and was in the throes of labor pains. Seeing that the labor pains were about to pass and China's economy was about to develop rapidly, the United States thought of a move.
First, a missile deflected and blew up a Chinese embassy. Then a report was prepared saying that the rockets used by China to launch satellites were intercontinental missiles. At that time, China used the Yixing rocket with one bomb and multiple satellites in order to save costs. In terms of economy, there is still a big gap between China and the United States.
This Yixing rocket is an intercontinental missile with multiple warheads. All China's commercial satellite launches are to cover up its military aerospace and intercontinental missile development work.
Therefore, the United States did not allow China to launch American satellites, so China could not receive orders to launch satellites. Later, I saw that there were still other orders, so they intensified their efforts. China was not allowed to launch any satellite with American satellite components, because they suspected that China had stolen American satellite technology!
The United States has listed a series of unfounded charges against China. It not only accuses China of stealing their satellite and other technologies, but also accuses China of stealing their nuclear weapons technology, intercontinental missile technology, submarine technology, etc.
Not to mention that if these technologies are really easy to steal, then the security protection of the United States is too bad. Even if it is placed in some weak countries, it is not that easy to steal, and so many have been stolen.
To put it simply, they completely deny China’s scientific research technology and the contributions made by Chinese scientists. Of course, there were indeed many people working in research institutes in the United States at that time who kept returning to China. But is it wrong for others to return to their home country
According to Americans, every scientific and technological progress made by any other country in the world was stolen from the United States. If this technology is better than that of the United States, it was only achieved by stealing other technologies from the United States!
Of course, the American representative who later insisted on these remarks was rendered speechless by China's refutation. But in any case, the United States has also imposed certain economic sanctions on China, which in particular has seriously hindered the development of China's aerospace technology.
To put it bluntly, China's military strength has grown too fast in the past few years, and its aerospace technology has grown rapidly, so it feels threatened.
Furthermore, they are also afraid that if China unites with Russia, the transcendent status of the United States will inevitably be challenged.
This result prompted China to think of another way, which is to cooperate with Europe. The United States' influence on Europe is getting weaker and weaker, especially since the United States wants to sanction Europe at every turn. Think about the island countries that originally relied on the United States. When the U.S. economy encountered problems, the island countries suffered. This is a reminder to many European countries.
So now China has purchased some satellites produced by the European company Cigna, including first- and second-generation satellites, in preparation to improve its own technology.
At the very least, the lifespan of the satellite must be fifteen years.
There are more than a dozen transponders on a communication satellite, and the annual rent of one transponder is close to 100 million US dollars. A satellite, including the launch cost, is only a few hundred million US dollars. If a satellite can be used normally for fifteen years, the profit will be at least ten times, or even higher!
If this aspect could be monopolized by the United States, there would be huge profits.
Fortunately, in Feng Yu's memory, China's satellite technology will continue to catch up with the international advanced level in the future, and in some aspects, even surpass it.
Although profits are still not as good as those of several large companies in Europe and the United States, they have been able to be self-sufficient and even make money by selling to other countries.
Even at this time, China's Chang Erbang and other rockets can still get a lot of orders from Asia because they are the cheapest. It costs hundreds of millions of dollars to launch a satellite in Europe and the United States, but China only needs 70 million U.S. dollars. The price difference of thirty million US dollars is not a small amount.
But now, China's satellite technology is still far behind. Even Russia is not good at commercial satellites. What Russia is best at is selling launch vehicle engines, even to the United States.
The profits in this area are obviously not as high as those in the entire satellite industry, and can even be said to be at the bottom. China saw this and decided to start a new business. It must not follow the old path of Russia and become a wage earner for large European and American companies.
China will also compete with Europe and the United States in the future. Don’t you want to monopolize this market? China provides packaged services. The entire satellite system, including launch, operation, construction of ground stations, and personnel training, is all-inclusive, which has attracted many Asian and African countries.
This is a full sale, not a leasing service like those companies in Europe and the United States. Being able to have autonomy is certainly more cost-effective than renting.
…
Two days later, both Ralph and Kirilenko reported the news to Feng Yu. Among them, Kirilenko said that Russia’s commercial satellites are no better than China’s and their prices will not be cheaper. Ralph told Feng Yu that the companies he contacted were only willing to rent satellites to Feng Yu and were not willing to sell them.
Feng Yu thought for a while and decided to ask his boss for help.
…
(End of chapter)