It’s been a big week for humanoid robots with a first-ever humanoid to directly connect to a low-Earth orbit satellite from one firm and plans announced to launch a robot into space by another. It seems like the robot space race is on – and China is winning.
China is brushing off its EV sector playbook and trying heavy investment, rapid iteration, and vertical integration in a new area: humanoid robotics.
Shenzhen-based Engine AI announced a new partnership with commercial space company Beijing Interstellar Human Spaceflight Technology that aims to send their PM01 humanoid robot into space, a move that would make it the world’s first humanoid robot astronaut.
At the same time, the “Embodied Tien Kung” robot developed by the Beijing Innovation Center of Humanoid Robotics (X-Humanoid), established a stable link with a satellite from GalaxySpace, achieving synchronous transmission of the robot’s visual data in what the company claims is a world’s-first instance of a humanoid robot connecting simultaneously to a low-orbit satellite, a smartphone, and a computer.
Space is so rough
Space is rough – not just on humans, but on literally any form of life that largely evolved with gravity. That’s why a push towards putting robots that can operate normally in the vacuum, microgravity, extreme temperature swings, and intense radiation of space makes a lot of sense.
Those imposing requirements that far exceed terrestrial scenarios will hardly affect the company’s PM01 at all, thanks to its high-precision sensing, millisecond-level motion response, and autonomous AI algorithms, will serve as the foundation, while the humanoid shape will shave back the learning curve on remote operation and process training. And, with satellite internet, robots can be liberated from their dependence on cellular or Wi-Fi networks.
That’s true in space, but also true in remote mountainous regions, offshore islands, or disaster relief sites, robots can maintain a real-time online communication wherever satellite coverage is available.
Engine AI is already selling its PM01 robot to consumers, with prices starting at about $25,000 for the commercial version and $39,500 for the educational/development version (unless I have that backwards, then blame Google Translate).
Electrek’s Take
According to Counterpoint Research data, a total of 16,000 humanoid robots were sold globally in 2025, with the vast, sweeping majority of those being sold in China and, notably, not being made by Tesla. The Chinese, meanwhile, are expected to exceed 100,000 units sold by 2027 (approx. 6x growth from 2025), with logistics, manufacturing and automotive uses expected to make up more than 70% of all installations.
All of which is to say that China seems to have learned from America’s historic space race, and the economic and technological booms that followed in the US seem to be going China’s way as Chinese firms dominated the market that saw staggering 508% year-on-year growth in 2025, totaling around $440 million and cranking out a full heavy excavator every six (6!) minutes.
All that said, plenty of laps to go in this race – and it’s far from over.
SOURCES: Counterpoint Research, CNEVPost, People’s Daily.
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