National Business Wire (Jan 12) -- China will launch its own answer to Starlink with 26,000 satellites, as it competes with the U.S. as a "space power".
The Nikkei reported Wednesday that China will start building its own network of low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites this year, with plans to launch about 26,000 satellites to cover the world with a high-speed communication network.
China will launch about 1,300 satellites, or 10% of the planned number, between the first half of 2024 and 2029 to underpin the deployment of a 6G mobile communications network by 2035, the report said.
As part of that effort, in April 2021, Beijing established a satellite internet company, the China Satellite Network Group Co. Ltd. (CSCN), in the Xiong'an New Area of Hebei province, close to the Chinese capital.
Russia's Kommersant reported Wednesday that the construction has begun on a commercial satellite launch platform near the Wenchang Space Launch Site in China's southern province of Hainan, from which the CSCN also plans to launch satellites.
China aims to be among the top aerospace powers by 2030 and rival the U.S., the world's largest economy, in space by 2045.
The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), a Chinese state-owned enterprise, pointed out in an article in December that, compared with Starlink owner SpaceX, the company has obvious gaps and deficiencies in its concept of development, research and production model, key core technologies, and quality, efficiency and effectiveness.
SpaceX, the space exploration company owned by U.S. billionaire Elon Musk, kicked off its Starlink project in 2018, aiming to provide high-speed internet access services with global coverage through a constellation of LEO satellites.
So far, the company has grown its Starlink internet service into a network of more than 5,000 satellites in orbit, with more than 2.3 million customers around the world, covering more than 70 countries and regions worldwide.
SpaceX's Starlink has played a major role in providing communications to Ukrainian troops during its war against Russia, sparking public interest in the technology.
Last September, Bloomberg reported that SpaceX had won its first contract with the U.S. Space Force to provide satellite communications via Starshield, the defense-focused version of its Starlink.
SpaceX announced Wednesday that it successfully sent text messages via Starlink satellites using T-Mobile's network, and plans to bring its direct-to-device cell service to market within the next year.
