China competes with Starlink with new satellite constellation

A new state-backed Chinese company is entering the space internet market. The goal is to provide global internet coverage using satellite constellations.

In the news: Shanghai Spacecom Satellite Technology has just launched its first batch of internet satellites into space. The first phase of the project will send 648 satellites into space by 2025.

• Ultimately, the Thousand Sails Constellation should have at least 15,000 satellites in low Earth orbit by the end of the decade.
• The first launch, by a Long March 6A launch vehicle from the Taiyuan Launch Center in northern Shanxi Province, carried 18 satellites.

China protects itself from external threats

Diminutive: With this Beijing-led project, which local media have described as “China’s version of Starlink,” China is once again asserting its ambitions in space.

• The Thousand Sails Constellation is one of three major satellite networks planned in the country and backed by Beijing.
• State involvement is just one example of a recent government initiative to involve the private sector in its science and technology projects.
• The idea is to create our own versions of critical technologies and infrastructure, make our industries independent, and protect them from foreign influence or pressure.
  • Beijing has already begun offering an alternative to the US GPS by creating its own global navigation system, with the BeiDou network due to be completed in 2020.
  • The goal is primarily to compete with Starlink, Elon Musk’s American company and the first in the space internet market. This company already has more than 6,000 satellites in orbit and eventually wants to have 42,000 satellites.
  • The other major project of this type, OneWeb, is from the European company Eutelsat and has about 10 times fewer satellites.