China has moved a step closer to fielding its own Starlink-style system with the successful launch of 18 Qianfan satellites aboard a Long March-6 carrier rocket. The mission lifted off Tuesday from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in Shanxi Province.
These 18 spacecraft are the initial deployment for the ambitious Qianfan megaconstellation, also known as the G60 project. Announced in 2023, the program is designed to deliver broad, high-quality communications services across China.
According to media reports, G60 envisions a network of more than 15,000 low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites capable of supporting multimedia and broadband applications. This year’s plan calls for launching 108 Qianfan satellites.
Planners aim to achieve regional coverage with 648 satellites by the end of 2025, expand to global coverage by 2027, and scale the constellation to roughly 15,000 satellites by 2030. The network is expected to support a variety of services, including direct mobile connectivity.
While Qianfan and SpaceX’s Starlink both rely on advanced satellite communications technologies and multi-layer, multi-orbit constellation architectures, they have different priorities. China’s Qianfan emphasizes multimedia delivery and broadband communications to serve diverse domestic user needs.
Starlink, with roughly 5,500 satellites currently in orbit, has achieved significant market maturity and serves consumers, businesses, and government customers worldwide. Qianfan remains focused on high-quality domestic service provision for now, though observers consider international expansion a likely step in the medium term.
Analysts expect the Qianfan constellation to spur progress across numerous industries, including mobile innovation, autonomous driving, disaster response, and the Internet of Things, creating substantial opportunities within the satellite internet sector.
LEO satellites have clear advantages over higher geostationary systems for many communications uses: lower latency, reduced link loss, more flexible launch options, varied application scenarios, and typically lower manufacturing costs. Those benefits explain the global rush to deploy LEO constellations and the rapid growth of this market segment.
Within China, multiple large-scale efforts are underway. In addition to the G60 project, state-owned China Satellite Network Group is developing the GW Constellation, and private launch and space company Landspace is pursuing the Honghu-3 Constellation. Each aims for roughly 10,000-satellite scale.
The GW Constellation plans to launch 12,992 satellites, while Honghu-3 targets about 10,000 satellites distributed across 160 orbital planes. Together, these and other initiatives mean the number of proposed satellite applications in China is approaching 40,000.
Meanwhile, international competitors continue to face their own challenges. At the end of June, Amazon again delayed the first production launches for Project Kuiper, its intended rival to Starlink.
(Photo by engin akyurt)
See also: NATO funds satellite backup for subsea internet cables
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