The Chinese government has just announced the creation of a group dedicated to the development and operation of constellations totaling nearly 13,000 broadband satellites. These will be added to the American constellations developed by SpaceX and Amazon.
China's State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) has just issued a statement announcing the establishment of China Satellite Network Group Co.Ltd. This organization will be responsible for developing two constellations totaling 12,992 satellites from Xiong'an New Area, a special economic zone created in Hebei Province in 2017.
The group will also operate independently of China's leading space contractors, China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp. (CASC) and the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation (CASIC).
Applications filed with the International Telecommunications Union by China last September suggest that these two constellations will break down into sub-constellations evolving at between 500 to 1 145 kilometers above sea level.
It is not yet known which companies will be responsible for building these satellites. It is also unknown when these instruments will be able to see the light of day. Plans previously announced by China hinted that these satellites would aim to deliver high-speed internet to rural areas of the country. It will also promote communications between the countries of the New Silk Road.
These new constellations will obviously be added to those already under development. The best known is probably that of SpaceX, called Starlink. It aims to provide high-speed Internet coverage to the entire world. The company also relies on its constellation to finance part of its space ambitions, such as its Starship program.
To date, SpaceX has already released 1,737 of the 12,000 Starlink satellites into orbit what his constellation will count. Several applications filed with the International Telecommunications Union also suggest that SpaceX would like to operate more than 30,000. The program is currently still in its testing phase. Full commercial service rollout is expected later this year.
Elon Musk's company isn't the only company targeting the internet from space. Indeed, Amazon is also in on the action with its Kuiper project, which plans to release 3236 satellites in low orbit .
To launch them, Amazon recently turned to United Launch Alliance and its Atlas V rocket. This first contract includes nine launches operated from Cape Canaveral, Florida. On the other hand, it is still unknown how many satellites each Atlas V rocket will be able to deliver, or when the first launch will take place.
