China successfully launches a communications satellite for Nigeria on Tuesday from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center. [Photo/Xinhua]

BEIJING - China is set to make five commercial launches for foreign customers next year, a boost to realizing the goal of re-launching itself in the global aerospace industry, a senior industry official said.

The five launches are a piggy-back launch of two Luxembourg micro-satellites for sea monitoring in January, launches of two communications satellites for Hong Kong-based APT Satellite Co Ltd, and launches of two remote sensing satellites, said Yin Liming, president of China Great Wall Industry Corporation, a subsidiary of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation.

As there are usually 20 to 30 commercial launches in the world each year, most carried out by Russia and European countries, the five launches next year mean that China can take at least a 15-percent share of this market next year, Yin said on the eve of the third and last commercial launch in 2011 of a China-developed communications satellite for Nigeria.

The other two launches in 2011 were the launch of a China-developed communications satellite for Pakistan in August, and the launch of a communications satellite built by France-based Thales Alenia Space for Eutelsat Communication, a leading European satellite operator, in October.

"With this momentum, we are confident of achieving the goal we set for the 2011-2015 period, which is to take a 15-percent share of the commercial launch market and a 10-percent share of the satellite export market by 2015," he said.

Next year also features the first export of a remote sensing satellite as a China-made remote sensing satellite will be launched for Venezuela, according to a contract signed this year. In the past, all satellites that China has exported are communications satellites.

In addition, the China Great Wall Industry Corporation, the main commercial platform for China's space industry, also inked contracts in the past 12 months on in-orbit delivery of a Bolivia communications satellite and a Belarus communications satellite, launch service for a Turkmenistan communications satellite and the piggy-back launch of the Luxembourg micro-satellites.

Through its contract with Belarus, China also achieved a breakthrough in serving European countries with a communications satellite for the first time, he added.

The contracts were achieved in the face of trade barriers and setbacks.

The United States in 1999 banned the export to China of satellites containing components and material covered under the US International Traffic in Arms Regulations. As five US satellite manufacturers practically dominated the global satellite export market, China was forced out of the commercial launch market.

It was not until 2005 when China managed to re-enter the commercial launch market against the trade barrier by launching satellites manufactured by European companies without components controlled by the US regulations.

In 2004, China Great Wall Industry Corporation beat other bidders and signed a contract to build and launch Nigeria's first communication satellite, Nigerian Communication Satellite-1. Nigeria became the first foreign buyer of both Chinese satellite and launch service. But the satellite, which was launched in 2007, failed in orbit 18 months later due to malfunctions of the solar array deployment assembly.

"The failure is unfortunate both for us and Nigeria," said He Xing, vice-president of China Great Wall Industry Corporation, and the one in charge of the Nigeria communications satellite project.

For Nigeria, the satellite was urgently needed to boost Nigeria's and Africa's telecommunications. For China, since Nigeria is the first foreign buyer that purchased China's satellite, the failure of the satellite could damage China's reputation in the global satellite export market.

"We cherished the relationship and trust (Nigeria gave us), so we decided to take the responsibility, building and launching a replacement satellite with no additional cost to Nigeria," He said.

As the insurance claim was not enough to cover the cost, Chinese contractors made up the difference.

Ahmed Rufai, CEO of Nigerian Communications Satellite Ltd, said that Nigeria highly appreciated China's decision, believing it to be "a win-win philosophy for both China and Nigeria".

He believed that the attitude China took in handling the incident has attracted more countries, including Pakistan, to trust China to build and launch their communications satellites.

Nigeria is also considering cooperation with China to develop two more communications satellites, Rufai said.

In the future, Yin said, the company will be involved in more international cooperation thanks to China's growing space capacity.

China has plans to assemble a space station by 2020, and is also working on the Beidou (or Compass) satellite navigation and positioning system, which will provide navigation, timing and short message services in the Asia and Pacific region by 2012 and will be capable of providing global navigation services by 2020.

Yin said that the market for the satellite navigation system application will not be smaller than that of commercial launches and satellite exports.