Special to CosmicTribune.com, March 19, 2026
By Richard Fisher
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) rolls out five-year plans that present national objectives, sometimes vague and much of it classified; The latest is CCP’s 15th Five Year Plan (FYP, 2026-2030) that has emerged from the annual “Two Sessions” (National People’s Political Consultative Conference and National People’s Congress) from March 4 to 11, 2026.
As space accomplishments are politically popular within China, the CCP usually uses the Two Sessions to take credit for them, usually featuring leading engineers or astronauts to reveal future plans. But this year state media have carried most of the space news.
On March 11 the Global Times reported:
“The draft outline of the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-2030) calls for building a modern industrial system and accelerating efforts to develop China into a space power, marking the first time the goal of becoming a “space power” has been included as a key task in a national five-year plan…”
Chinese commentary indicates that the 15th FYP will stress advancing China’s ability to benefit from the “Space Economy” while also pressing for greater military advantage in space — or the development of “dual-use” civil-military space technologies.
Global Times continued, the “China National Space Administration established a dedicated department for commercial aerospace last year… [and the] first national-level guiding document for the sector…[with] Regions such as Beijing, Shanghai, and South China’s Hainan Province have also rolled out supportive policies…”
On March 11, state media CGTN stated of 15th FYP space plans,
“China aims to accelerate the development of its space capabilities while transforming aerospace from a symbol of national strength into a key driver of new productive forces capable of generating trillions of yuan in economic value.”
This will be accomplished by shifting focus from expensive custom space projects to “a market-oriented industry capable of mass production… Satellites will be equipped with… a universal “smart brain”…China plans to develop lighter launch vehicles with reusable capabilities similar to aircraft, dramatically lowering launch costs.”
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