China launches "Thousand Sails Constellation" to rival SpaceX Starlink

The Long March 6A carrier rocket launched 18 communication satellites into low Earth orbit. These satellites are part of the Qianfan Xingzuo project, or "Thousand Sails Constellation." This is China's answer to the Starlink system from the American company SpaceX.

The Long March 6A rocket launched satellites from the Shanghai Spacecom Satellite Technology (SSST) company into orbit from the Taiyuan spaceport in the Shanxi province in eastern China.

The "Thousand Sails Constellation" project, also known as "G60Star Link," began with placing 18 satellites in orbit. The enterprise's goal is to provide broadband internet access.

SSST, a startup in the space technology sector, received support from Shanghai municipal authorities and raised ¥6.7 billion (approx. €894 million) for this purpose, including funds from private investors.

According to the plan, 108 satellites will be launched this year, and by the end of 2025, their number should increase to 648. The Chinese responsible for the project aim to achieve "global internet access" by 2027. By 2030, 15,000 of their satellites are expected to be in low Earth orbit.

Currently, more than 6,200 Starlink satellites from SpaceX are in near-Earth space. Elon Musk, the company's owner, plans to place 42,000 such devices.

The competition between the United States and China in space has a character that is not only commercial. Chinese scientists from the People's Liberation Army (PLA) have been studying the use of the Starlink system during the war in Ukraine for the past two years. They have repeatedly warned about the risks it could pose in a military conflict between China and the USA.

In January, the newspaper "Jiefangjun Bao", an official PLA medium, stated that the "high density" of Starlink satellites poses a severe threat to the security of many countries' space resources and affects the functioning of satellites belonging to other nations.

In June, the Hong Kong newspaper South China Morning Post reported that the PLA is developing plans to disable or destroy Starlink satellites if they threaten China's national security.

The "G60Star Link" project is one of three similar initiatives China implements under the common name "Ten Thousand Stars Constellation". The other two envisage launching 13,000 satellites by the state-owned China Satellite Network Group and 10,000 satellites by the commercial firm Landray Hongqing.