MinoSpace () is a major Chinese satellite technology research, development, and manufacturing firm based in the country's capital, Beijing.
Established three years after the Chinese State Council opened the space technology market to commercial participation, MinoSpace has developed and launched over two dozen remote sensing and communications satellites.
Name MinoSpace, variably written as 'Mino Space', is formally known as Beijing Weina Star Technology Company Ltd. ().
The first word of the company's name, 'Mino', is sometimes left untranslated in English publications, using instead the pinyin romanization of the Chinese words and , which translate to 'micro' and 'nano', respectively. Combining these two characters to form the company's Chinese name (), the English name 'Mino' is derived from a portmanteau of 'micro' and 'nano' into 'Mino'. The word 'Space' in the company's name is a translation of the Chinese compound (two-character) word for space, , which is built from the characters and . At times, this portion of the company's name has been translated as 'Star' instead of 'Space'.
History
Background Historically, the Chinese space program has been exclusively state-administered and eschewed privatization of space technology development. Following the originally-espoused communist ideals of the post-Civil War era of leadership under Mao Zedong, the newly-communist People's Republic of China actively fought against technological innovation, including within the Chinese space program.
In 2014, the National Development and Reform Commission of the PRC's State Council published Document 60 (titled Guiding Opinions of the State Council on Innovating the Investment and Financing Mechanisms in Key Areas and Encouraging Social Investment) which officially opened the door to the 'first generation' of commercial Chinese space companies. Among the early commercial satellite manufacturers were the companies Commsat, CGSTL, and Space-OK.
Bolstered by Document 60 and further encouraged by the government, the previously absent investments in Chinese commercial space firms began to grow.
Establishment As the private market for space companies entered its second generation, MinoSpace was founded on 7 August 2017 and established its headquarters in the Yongfeng Industrial Base, Haidian District, in the northwest area of Beijing city. Each of the company's founders came from the government sector and sought to bring the exclusively state-dominated satellite manufacture industry to the commercial sector.
MinoSpace's founders included Gao Enyu () and Wu Shufan (). Gao had previously in the design department of for the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT), a major state-owned civil-military launch vehicle manufacturer under the larger China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), and is best known for manufacturing the Long March series of rockets. Gao left CALT after two years and began work for the Communications Satellite Division () of the China Academy of Space Technology (CAST) as chief designer of communications satellites. Finally, in August 2017, Gao departed CAST to cofound MinoSpace.
Co-founder Wu Shufan spent 17 years as a researcher and senior engineer at European institutions to include the Technical University of Braunschweig in Germany, Delt University of Technology in the Netherlands, the University of Surrey's Space Center in the United Kingdom, and at the European Space Agency's Technology Research Center. In 2013, Wu returned to China from Europe and began work as the chief engineer in Microsatellite Engineering Center of the Chinese Academy of Science (CAS).
Operations Just over a year after its establishment, the first satellite manufactured by MinoSpace was launched on 27 October 2018. The Future-1 (Welai-1) small satellite was based on MinoSpace's MN10 1.5U CubeSat and carried both two science experiments and a remote sensor for China Central Television (CCTV). Aboard the maidan launch of the Lhuque-1 rocket designed by LandSpace from Jiuquan SLC, the satellite failed to reach its intended sun-synchronous low earth orbit (LEO) and the project was declared a failure, though it did mark the first attempt to launch a satellite by a private Chinese space company. The second launch of a MinoSpace satellite occurred two days later on 29 October aboard a Long March 2C rocket at JSLC.
On 20 November 2018, MinoSpace announced that it had obtained its Series A financing.
Cyberattack by Anonymous In response to allegations of a Chinese government disinformation campaign waged through Wikipedia edit warring, members of the hacktivist collective group Anonymous claimed to have compromised various webpages on the MinoSpace website, as well as the official website of the Chinese Ministry of Emergency Management in November 2022. The vandalized pages included images of then-President of Taiwan Tsai Ing-wen, the Taiwanese flag, cartoons of Winnie the Pooh (mocking Xi Jinping), and the slogans "Down with Xi Jinping" and "Restore the ROC".
Products MinoSpace offers three categories of products, satellite platforms, satellite communication (SATCOM) ground station equipment, and satellite components.
Satellite platforms +ModelDesignationMass (kg)Function6UCubeSat10Low-resolution remote sensing, data acquisitionMN10Nanosatellite10Low-resolution remote sensing, data acquisitionMN10AMicrosatellite30Medium-resolution remote sensingMN50Microsatellite50Medium or wide-resolution remote sensingMN100Small satellite100Remote sensing, communication, IoT, navigationMN200Small satellite200High-resolution remote sensingMN200SSmall satellite200High-resolution remote sensingMN1000High-orbit satellite1000Communication
SATCOM MinoSpace also produces a Ku and Ka-band very-small-aperture terminal (VSAT), a portable telemetry tracking and command (TT&C) ground station, and a three-mode data communication terminal that interacts with 4G, Thuraya, and Beidou communication networks.
Satellite components MinoSpace manufactures and advertises UHF/VHF deployable antennas for satellites.
Headquarters The company's headquarters are located in Beijing's Aerospace City, along with the Chinese state-owned aerospace giants, China Aerospace Science & Technology Corporation (CASC) and China Aerospace Science & Industry Corporation (CASIC), Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, the People's Liberation Army Aerospace Force's (PLAAF) Beijing Aerospace Flight Control Center (which oversees the entirety of the Chinese military and civilian space program), and a multitude of smaller aerospace companies.
Satellites Below is a list of MinoSpace satellite launches. All dates and times listed are in UTC. +List of MinoSat Satellite LaunchesDateTime SatelliteFunctionLauncherLaunch siteOrbit27 October 201808:00Weilai 1Earth observationZhuque-1Jiuquan mobile launchLow Earth (SSO)29 October 201800:43UnknownLong March 2CJiuquan SLS-2Low Earth (SSO)7 December 201804:12Weina-1Earth observationLong March 2DJiuquan SLS-2Low Earth (SSO)17 August 201904:11Xingshidai-5Earth observationJielong 1Jiuquan LS-95ALow Earth (SSO)20 December 201903:22Tianyan 01 (Yizheng-1)Earth observationLong March 4BTaiyuan LC-9Low Earth (SSO)Tianyan 02Earth observationLow Earth (SSO)Wenlai-1REarth observationLow Earth (SSO)6 November 202003:19Tianyan 05Earth observationLong March 6Taiyuan LC-16Low Earth (SSO)27 April 202103:20Taijing-2 01Earth observationLong March 6Taiyuan LC-16Low Earth (SSO)14 October 202110:51SSS-2AEducationLong March 2DTaiyuan LC-9Low Earth (SSO)27 February 202203:06Taijing-3 01Earth observationLong March 8Wenchang LC-2Low Earth (SSO)Taijing-4 01Earth observationLow Earth (SSO)Wenchang-1 01Earth observationLow Earth (SSO)Wenchang-1 02Earth observationLow Earth (SSO)Xidian-1Earth observationLow Earth (SSO)9 August 202204:11Taijing-1 01 (Pingan-3)Earth observationCeres-1Jiuquan LS-95ALow Earth (SSO)Taijing-1 02 (Xingshidai 12)Earth observationLow Earth (SSO)13 January 202307:00Shiyan 22ATechnology demonstrationLong March 2DJiuquan SLS-2Low EarthShiyan 22BTechnology demonstrationLow Earth10 August 202304:03Xiguang-1 01Earth observationCeres-1Jiuquan LS-95ALow Earth (SSO)Xingchi-1BEarth observationLow Earth (SSO)23 January 202404:03Taijing-1-03Earth observationKinetica 1Jiuquan LS-130Low Earth (SSO)Taijing-2-02Earth observationLow Earth (SSO)Taijing-2-04Earth observationLow Earth (SSO)Taijing-3-02Earth observationLow Earth (SSO)Taijing-4-03Earth observationLow Earth (SSO)
References