Launch puts China firmly in the communications satellite game

A mission by the Chinese government to launch the first 18 satellites of the G60/Qianfan constellation comes with massive funding that surpassed the $1 billion mark, according to Blaine Curcio, founder of Hong Kong-based Orbital Gateway Consulting and an expert on China’s space programs.

A published report stated that China today “launched its first batch of internet satellites that will form part of a constellation it hopes will rival SpaceX’s Starlink.”

Separately, Reuters reported that a successful launch would “mark an important step in Beijing’s strategic goal of creating its own version of Starlink, a growing commercial broadband constellation that has about 5,500 satellites in space.”

The news agency went on to say the launch by Shanghai Spacecom Satellite Technology (SSST) is part of the company’s “Thousand Sails Constellation plan, also known as the G60 Starlink plan, which began last year and aims to deploy more than 15,000 low Earth orbit satellites.”

According to a post on LinkedIn by Curcio, Genesat, the manufacturer of the satellites, “has already completed the second batch of satellites with an unannounced launch date. Given the massive tech transfer that’s taken place from Chinese Academy of Sciences to Genesat, we may expect rapid ramp-up.”

Curcio, who publishes an online newsletter called China Space Monitor, which contains “monthly insights on all manner of Chinese space industry topics”, wrote in his May edition that Starlink accounts for greater than “50% of all satellites on-orbit today. Add to that the fact that Starlink is being used by militaries in Ukraine, Sudan and other conflict regions, and you have yourself a geopolitically important megaproject. And it’s no surprise that China wants their own.”

There are, he wrote, two “pretty credible,” NGSO (Non-Geostationary Orbit) communications constellations in China. These include the state-backed SatNet/Guowang constellation and the “partly state-backed but somewhat commercial G60/ Qianfan constellation.”

Curcio went on to say, “despite it only being announced with any seriousness a few months ago, we already know a heck of a lot more about G60/Qianfan than we do about SatNet/Guowang, as the former appears very keen for publicity and recognition, and the latter very much under wraps, possibly due to its Central government ownership.”

The operation, he wrote, “will be operated by Yuanxin Satellite, aka SSST, a company that was provided  about $1 billion of funding from the Shanghai Government earlier this year. The satellites will be built by Genesat, a joint venture between the Chinese Academy of Sciences Shanghai Engineering Center for Microsatellites (CAS SECM) and Shanghai Aerospace Investment Limited (SAIL), a Shanghai Government fund.”

According to Curcio, “recent statements from the company call for 648 satellites and APAC regional coverage by EOY 2025, and an additional 648 satellites for global coverage by EOY 2027.”

He stated that the SatNet/Guowang constellation “will be operated by China Satellite Networks Limited (SatNet), a centrally controlled SOE established in April 2021. The constellation might have thousands of satellites, or over 10,000 satellites, or some other undefined number. We have zero news of deployment timeline, we don’t know what the satellites look like, and we have no confirmation about who will build them.”