On Dec. 16, 2024, China successfully launched into orbit the first Guowang Group spacecraft, which in the future will be able to provide high-speed satellite Internet access worldwide. It is to create an analogue of the Starlink platform, developed by SpaceX.
It is reported that the Chinese heavy rocket Long March 5B (Changzheng-5B) with Guowang satellites launched from the Wenchang cosmodrome on Hainan Island. The first stage of the carrier fell into the ocean, and the upper stage of the Yuanzheng-2 (Yuanzheng-2) launched the first 10 Guowang spacecraft into orbit approximately 1,100 km high.
China does not elaborate on the design and characteristics of these satellites, saying only that they will be used as relay stations of the broadband Internet access system. The Chinese Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) said Guowang's vehicles were developed by its subsidiary, the Chinese Academy of Space Technology (CAST). Both organizations belong to the central government of the PRC.
The Guowang project ("National Network") provides for the launch of approximately 13 thousand spacecraft into orbit. Half of them are planned to be launched by 2032. The operator of the system is China Satellite Network Group Co. (China Satnet), established in April 2021. In the public domain, there is little information about the activities of this enterprise.
The existence of plans for the Guowang megaconstellation have been publicly known since 2020, when China submitted spectrum allocation filings to the International Telecommunication Union. In these filings, China outlined a fleet of 12,992 satellites in low-Earth orbit, operating at a range of altitudes and orbital inclinations.
Guowang, or "national network," is managed by a secretive company called China SatNet, established by the Chinese government in 2021. SatNet has released little information since its formation, and the group doesn't have a website.
Marc Julienne, director of the Center for Asian Studies at the French Institute of International Relations, wrote last year that SatNet's inconspicuous presence in the public sphere "seems rather inconsistent with the ambition of the project" if it is to offer an alternative to Starlink in consumer markets, particularly in countries where Starlink is banned—like China and Russia.
"The discretion surrounding China SatNet's activities could be explained by the company’s lack of maturity and organization, and perhaps by certain uncertainties regarding its technical, technological and strategic directions," Julienne wrote.
There is, perhaps, another explanation. Earlier this year, China launched the first group of satellites for another megaconstellation—called Qianfan or Thousand Sails—to provide Internet connectivity from space. The Qianfan constellation is managed by Shanghai Spacecom Satellite Technology (SSST), a company backed by Shanghai's municipal government.
Unlike Guowang, Chinese officials have released some basic information about the Qianfan network, which will initially consist of around 1,300 satellites but could eventually grow to some 14,000 satellites. For example, organizations involved in the Qianfan program have publicly stated how many satellites they plan to build per year, and they revealed the spacecraft have a flat-panel design, allowing them to stack on top of one another for launch, just like SpaceX's Starlink satellites.
With Starlink, SpaceX is not only serving the consumer broadband market, but the service is proving useful in military operations in Ukraine. Starlink connectivity has aided Ukrainian military forces following the Russian invasion in 2022, and Chinese officials recognize the military utility of SpaceX's network.
The US military has tested Starlink services in austere conditions to evaluate the network's ability to support military operations, and the National Reconnaissance Office is using the mass-produced Starlink spacecraft platform to create its own fleet of low-altitude spy satellites.
"Any nation equipped with these systems will thus have a decisive advantage over others that are not," Julienne wrote.
While there are open questions about how China will use its satellite megaconstellations, their deployment will require a significant increase in the country's launch capacity, driving the development of new commercial rockets, including reusable boosters, to lower costs and increase their flight rate.
The Long March 5B rocket, developed by China's incumbent state-owned launch company, is not the most cost-effective of these options. But the Long March 5B has the lift capacity to haul more Guowang satellites to orbit than any other operational Chinese rocket. It's likely future satellites for Chinese megaconstellations will fly on multiple types of rockets as more launchers come online.
China has until 2032 to launch half of the Guowang constellation—6,496 satellites—according to radio spectrum regulations promulgated by the International Telecommunication Union.
2023: Building the system
At the end of February 2023, it was reported that a new satellite communication system was being established in China, designed to compete with the American Starlink. The project is codenamed GW; the satellites will be launched into low Earth orbit.
GW satellites are supposed to have the added advantage of being cheaper and providing more efficient transmission than satellites in higher orbits. State-owned spacecraft and rocket manufacturer China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp (CASIC) will launch the group's first GW satellites expected in September 2023.
According to SpaceX, the Starlink network, which has more than 3,000 satellites in orbit as of Feb. 16, 2023, is expected to grow to more than 40,000 satellites. Starlink satellites can receive data from the U.S. Department of Defense to plan or coordinate their positions and are equipped with surveillance sensors to monitor the space environment.
The GW constellation will include 12,992 satellites owned by China Satellite Network Group Co. The launch schedule for these satellites remains unknown, but their number can be compared to the scale of the network of more than 12,000 satellites planned by SpaceX by 2027.
The GW satellite constellation will be deployed quickly, before the completion of Starlink, according to leader Xu Tsan of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) University of Space Engineering in Beijing. In this way, our country will have a place in low orbit and will not allow the Starlink group to use low orbit resources too actively. Chinese satellites could also be placed in orbits not yet reached by the Starlink constellation, saying they would gain capabilities and advantages at other orbital altitudes and even suppress Starlink, Tsan added.
Amid tensions with Washington in 2023 and export controls that have denied Chinese companies access to some advanced computer chips, President Xi Jinping has called on China to develop technological independence in all areas.
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