China’s Rollable Fully Flexible Solar Wing Satellite Achieves World’s First

Recently, the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center completed a milestone launch: the world’s first rollable fully flexible solar wing satellite, independently developed by Beijing GalaxySpace, was successfully placed into orbit by a Long March 2C rocket. This marks a critical breakthrough in China’s new satellite energy system, paving the way for low-cost, high-efficiency space missions.

Traditional satellite solar wings are typically rigid or semi-flexible, facing challenges such as large size, heavy weight, and complex deployment. In contrast, this fully flexible solar wing, with its flexible substrate and battery design, achieves a revolutionary “lightweight, rollable, high deployment-to-storage ratio.” During launch, it can be rolled into a cylindrical shape with a diameter comparable to a thermos; once deployed, it expands to the size of a standard meeting room, stably providing high-power energy. “It’s like folding a meeting room into a thermos,” as the designers aptly described its core advantage.

This design also overcomes the limitations of single-satellite launches, enabling stacked multi-satellite launches that can increase the number of satellites per launch several-fold, significantly reducing costs. The breakthrough is backed by the team’s efforts to conquer the extreme conditions of space. The satellite must operate in environments with temperature swings from -180°C to 120°C and intense radiation. With no mature international experience to draw upon, the team developed flexible battery circuits and a “zero-error” deployment mechanism, ultimately enabling the “Made in China” fully flexible solar wing to function in space.

This technology has broad applications in low-orbit internet and remote sensing satellites, driving satellite manufacturing toward “lightweight and low-cost” solutions. In the future, satellite energy systems may achieve “plug-and-play” functionality, offering a Chinese solution to global aerospace.