Sichuan Stakes its Claim as China’s Billion-Dollar Orbital Hub with New Western Spaceport

China’s Sichuan province is transitioning from a traditional launch site into a massive financial engine for the “New Space” economy, unveiling a roadmap to build a “Western Commercial Spaceport” following a 2025 where its aerospace industry already reached a valuation of 50 billion yuan ($6.9 billion). During a National Space Administration press conference on April 17, provincial officials signaled that the “Fifteenth Five-Year Plan” will focus on capital-intensive scaling, moving beyond research and into high-volume, vertically integrated production. The investment strategy centers on a “dual-core” model: the Chengdu metropolitan area and Liangshan Prefecture will act as the primary engines for…