Sunday, February 26, 2023

China Aims To Launch Nearly 13,000 Satellites To Compete Against Elon Musk’s Starlink

Launch of a Long March-2F Y12 rocket in June 2021.  

SCMP: China aims to launch nearly 13,000 satellites to ‘suppress’ Elon Musk’s Starlink, researchers say 

* The satellite constellation is likely to be launched quickly to prevent SpaceX from hogging 'low-orbit resources', according to PLA space scientists 

* The project, code-named 'GW', would provide internet services and could be used to spy on rival networks and carry out anti-Starlink missions, paper says 

Researchers say China plans to build a huge satellite network in near-Earth orbit to provide internet services to users around the world - and to stifle Elon Musk's Starlink. 

The project has the code name "GW", according to a team led by associate professor Xu Can with the People's Liberation Army's (PLA) Space Engineering University in Beijing. But what these letters stand for is unclear. 

The GW constellation will include 12,992 satellites owned by the newly established China Satellite Network Group Co, Xu and his colleagues said in a paper about anti-Starlink measures published in the Chinese journal Command Control and Simulation on February 15.  

Read more .... 

WNU Editor: For the past few years China has made public their concerns that Starlink could be a strategic and military threat. It now looks like they are developing plans to counter it. 

Bottom line. 

Earth's low orbit is about to get crowded with a lot of satellites in the next few years. 

 China Aims To Launch Nearly 13,000 Satellites To Compete Against Elon Musk’s Starlink  

China Is Trying to Quickly Launch 13,000 Satellites to Defeat Starlink -- Popular Mechanics  

Project 'GW': China to thwart Starlink influence with '13,000' satellites -- Interesting Engineering  

Watch Out, Elon: China Could Launch 13,000 Satellites to Disrupt Starlink -- Gizmodo

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Being able to provide free border-to-border internet at the snap of a finger will be a huge bargaining chip for China's many third world infrastructure projects. It's an opportunity for them to say "At least some of the assistance we provide isn't just cash that the local elites can steal.", with a nice little side bonus that they can spy on all that internet traffic much more easily than rival powers.

Smart move. Our govt is captured by the criminal elite profiting off the previous system, so of course they could never think of it.

Anonymous said...

The project has the code name "GW",

George Washington

MaoTin said...

collisions, crashing down satellites etc, looks like meteors will be the least of our problems, lol