The first satellites of the “constellation of a thousand sails” were sent into low Earth orbit on Tuesday, August 6, aboard Rockets Long March 6. The launch took place at the Taiyuan rocket and satellite base in Shanxi Province in eastern China. The satellites belong to Shanghai Spacecom Satellite Technology (SSST), it said CNBC.
China Competes with SpaceX. Elon Musk Has Competition
The “Constellation of a Thousand Sails” is to consist of over 15,000 satellites and deliver Internet for the entire Earth – similar to the Starlink system by Elon Musk's SpaceX. China aims to deliver 648 satellites by 2025 as part of the first phase of the project.
For comparison, Starlink currently consists of about 5,500 satellites, and ultimately it is to be as many as 40,000 satellites.”Works above the constellation they emphasize great ambitions Chin in space and Beijing's desire to break the United States' dominance in this sector,” CNBC notes.
China sees Starlink system and SpaceX as part of US-created 'space hegemony'
Satellites of this type operate at altitudes ranging from 300 up to 2000 km. Reuters Agency notes that their presence has significant military implications. “Since 2022, when the war in Ukraine demonstrated the importance of Starlink for battlefield communications, media outlets affiliated with the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) have published several editorials on the threat Starlink poses to Chinese interests,” it says. These articles portray Starlink and SpaceX as part of a “space hegemony” that the United States is seeking to establish in space to secure a “unilateral space military advantage.”