The Meishan Management Committee of Sichuan Tianfu New Area

On June 9, the 3 rd Meishan Satellite Application Industry Development Conference officially opened in Meishan City, Sichuan Province, China. Experts in remote sensing technology, aerospace, and related fields, along with representatives from international cooperation organizations, gathered in Meishan for an in-depth discussion on technological innovation, coordinated industrial chain development, and international cooperation models in the satellite industry, contributing insights and suggestions to help advance Meishan's satellite sector to a higher level.

The conference was sponsored by the China Association of Remote Sensing Application and the People's Government of Meishan City, organized by the Meishan Management Committee of Sichuan Tianfu New Area, and co-organized by Meishan Tianfu New Area Xingchan Investment Group Co., Ltd.

At the opening ceremony, the China Association of Remote Sensing Application released the 2025 Blue Book on the Development of China's Remote Sensing Application Sector. Keynote speeches were delivered by Li Deren, photogrammetry and remote sensing scientist and professor at Wuhan University; Zhu Ninghua, microwave photonics expert and director of the Institute of Intelligent Photonics at Nankai University; and Xu Ying, Beidou navigation system scientist and researcher at the Aerospace Information Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Huantian Wisdom Technology Co., Ltd., the leading enterprise in Meishan's satellite industry, unveiled its platform "StarView Horizon", which integrates over 40 core spatiotemporal algorithms at the opening ceremony. It also signed cooperation agreements with Kazakhstan Temir Zholy, Kazakhstan Kazaerospace, and Malaysian Karuna Group for promoting satellite application projects.

In the past three decades, China's space industry has rapidly advanced. As a result, numerous cities known for their related industries have popped up across the country. In the realm of satellite technology, regions beyond traditional strongholds like Beijing, Shanghai, and Xi'an are now making significant strides in this sector, cities such as Meishan have emerged as new hubs for the satellite industry.

In recent years, Meishan City has seized the opportunity of commercial aerospace development, taking the lead in laying out the satellite application industry in Sichuan Province, and promoting the application of satellite remote sensing data in high-standard farmland, disaster prevention and reduction, resource survey, environmental protection, smart cities, and other fields. At present, Meishan has become the city with the largest number of commercial remote sensing satellites in Southwest China, ranking fourth in the country overall.

Meishan unveiled its satellite industry development plan (2024-2030) last year, outlining a strategic roadmap to build a globally competitive satellite industry cluster by 2030, targeting an industrial scale exceeding 10 billion yuan (about 1.39 billion U.S. dollars).

To achieve this ambitious goal, Meishan is actively advancing the development of key industrial projects. On December 30, 2024, the Western China Satellite Industrial Park, located in Meishan Tianfu New Area, officially began full operations. During this conference, nine new enterprises signed agreements to join the park, and one new science and technology innovation platform was introduced. To date, the park has attracted a total of 26 satellite-related enterprises and five scientific research platforms. By 2028, the scale of Meishan's satellite industry is expected to exceed 5 billion yuan.

On the other side, the Huantian Cloud Smart Computing Center -- the largest data center dedicated to the commercial satellite sector in Southwest China -- is about to be put into operation. It aims to address three major bottlenecks hindering the development of the sector: insufficient computing power, limited storage capacity, and low application efficiency.

"It is expected to complete the last piece of Meishan's aerospace industry layout, making the city one of the few places in China with comprehensive capabilities in satellite research and development, monitoring and control, application, and data transmission," Yang Zhenyu, deputy general manager of the Huantian Wisdom Technology Co., Ltd., owner of the new infrastructure, said.

Source: The Meishan Management Committee of Sichuan Tianfu New Area