Qianfan (), officially known as the Spacesail Constellation and also referred to as G60 Starlink, is a planned Chinese

low-Earth orbit A low Earth orbit (LEO) is an orbit around Earth with a period of 128 minutes or less (making at least 11.25 orbits per day) and an eccentricity less than 0.25. Most of the artificial objects in outer space are in LEO, peaking in number at an ...

satellite internet megaconstellation to create a system of worldwide internet coverage. It was created by Shanghai Spacecom Satellite Technology (SSST), a firm backed by the

Shanghai Municipal People's Government The Shanghai Municipal People's Government is the local administrative agency of Shanghai. It is officially elected by the Shanghai Municipal People's Congress and is formally responsible to the SMPC and its Standing Committee. The municipal gove ...

and the

Chinese Academy of Sciences The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS; ) is the national academy for natural sciences and the highest consultancy for science and technology of the People's Republic of China. It is the world's largest research organization, with 106 research i ...

. The project was started in 2024 as a rival to the

Starlink Starlink is a satellite internet constellation operated by Starlink Services, LLC, an international telecommunications provider that is a wholly owned subsidiary of American aerospace company SpaceX, providing coverage to around 130 countries ...

satellite constellation installed by

SpaceX Space Exploration Technologies Corp., commonly referred to as SpaceX, is an America, American space technology company headquartered at the SpaceX Starbase, Starbase development site in Starbase, Texas. Since its founding in 2002, the compa ...

, and plans to be constituted of over 15,000 satellites by the project's end.

History

2023

The "Thousand Sails" program began with the creation of the "Shanghai Action Plan to Promote Commercial Aerospace Development and Create a Space Information Industry Highland (2023-2025)" program first announced on 20 November. The government of Shanghai raised 6.7 billion

Chinese Yuan The renminbi ( ; currency symbol, symbol: Yen and yuan sign, ¥; ISO 4217, ISO code: CNY; abbreviation: RMB), also known as the Chinese yuan, is the official currency of the China, People's Republic of China. The renminbi is issued by the Peop ...

($943 million) in funds for the construction of the project, which was initially dubbed the G60 Starlink. The first flat panel satellite for the megaconstellation was assembled in December 2023. The satellite's facilities were allocated to the state owned Shanghai Gesi Aerospace Technology (Genesat).

2024

On 6 August 2024 at 06:42 UTC, China launched its first set of eighteen flat panel satellites associated with the project using the

Long March 6A The Long March 6A () or Chang Zheng 6A as in pinyin, abbreviated LM 6A for export or CZ 6A within China, is a Chinese medium-lift launch vehicle in the Long March family, which was developed by the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporati ...

launch vehicle A launch vehicle is typically a rocket-powered vehicle designed to carry a payload (a crewed spacecraft or satellites) from Earth's surface or lower atmosphere to outer space. The most common form is the ballistic missile-shaped multistage ...

, China's 35th orbital launch in the year 2024. The rocket launched from the Taiyuan Launch Complex located in the north of

Shanxi Province Shanxi; formerly romanised as Shansi is a province in North China. Its capital and largest city of the province is Taiyuan, while its next most populated prefecture-level cities are Changzhi and Datong. Its one-character abbreviation is ( ...

, and brought the satellites into a

polar orbit A polar orbit is one in which a satellite passes above or nearly above both poles of the body being orbited (usually a planet such as the Earth, but possibly another body such as the Moon or Sun) on each revolution. It has an inclination of abo ...

. The

and the

China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) is a main contractor for the Chinese space program. It is state-owned and has subsidiaries which design, develop and manufacture a range of spacecraft, launch vehicles, and ground equ ...

both reported that the space mission was "a complete success". However, the

United States Space Command United States Space Command (USSPACECOM or SPACECOM) is a unified combatant command of the United States Department of Defense, responsible for military operations in outer space, specifically all operations 100 kilometers (62 miles) and greater ...

reported that soon after the delivery of 18 satellites, the upper stage of

broke apart and created a cloud of debris of “over 300 pieces of trackable debris in low-Earth orbit”. On 15 October 2024 at 11:06 UTC, a

rocket launched the second group of eighteen Qianfan satellites into a polar orbit. On 5 December 2024 at 04:41 UTC, a third group of eighteen Qianfan satellites were launched into a polar orbit by a

rocket.

Future

Based on

Chinese state media The mass media in the People's Republic of China primarily consists of television, newspapers, radio, and magazines. Since the start of the 21st century, the Internet has also emerged as an important form of mass media and is under the direct ...

China Central Television China Central Television (CCTV) is the State media, national television broadcaster of China, established in 1958. CCTV is operated by the National Radio and Television Administration which reports directly to the Publicity Department of th ...

coverage, China has planned to launch and establish 648 satellites by the end of 2025 as part of the 1,296 satellites in the first phase of construction of the constellation, with the finished broadband multimedia satellite megaconstellation consisting of over 15,000 internet satellites. Of these, 108 satellites were planned to be deployed in 2024 in separate launches of 36 and 54 internet satellites each, and would operate in "Ku, Q and V" bands. The system also planned to annex finite frequencies and orbital slots, and also provide

data security Data security or data protection means protecting digital data, such as those in a database, from destructive forces and from the unwanted actions of unauthorized users, such as a cyberattack or a data breach. Technologies Disk encryption ...

. The

People's Liberation Army The People's Liberation Army (PLA) is the military of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the People's Republic of China (PRC). It consists of four Military branch, services—People's Liberation Army Ground Force, Ground Force, People's ...

expressed intentions of potentially using the megaconstellation for military uses akin to Starlink's utility for

Ukrainian Armed Forces The Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) are the Military, military forces of Ukraine. All military and security forces, including the Armed Forces, are under the command of the president of Ukraine and subject to oversight by a permanent Verkhovna Rad ...

communications while fighting against

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

during the

Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...

Launches

Impact on the sky

Qianfan satellites are bright, and their

light pollution Light pollution is the presence of any unwanted, inappropriate, or excessive artificial Visible spectrum, lighting. In a descriptive sense, the term ''light pollution'' refers to the effects of any poorly implemented lighting sources, during the ...

poses a threat to

observational astronomy Observational astronomy is a division of astronomy that is concerned with recording data about the observable universe, in contrast with theoretical astronomy, which is mainly concerned with calculating the measurable implications of physical ...

. At their current luminosity the spacecraft will leave streaks in photographic research images that cannot be removed by software. They would also interfere with aesthetic appreciation of the night sky because they are visible to the unaided eye. Other spacecraft operators have mitigated the brightness of the satellites to reduce their impact on astronomy. This is a known problem with

satellite constellations A satellite or an artificial satellite is an object, typically a spacecraft, placed into orbit around a celestial body. They have a variety of uses, including communication relay, weather forecasting, navigation ( GPS), broadcasting, scientif ...

, which can be partly mitigated.https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/spacexs-dark-satellites-are-still-too-bright-for-astronomers/

References

{{Orbital launches in 2024 Space program of the People's Republic of China 2024 in spaceflight 2024 in China 2024 in Shanghai Communications satellite constellations Communications satellites in low Earth orbit Communications satellites of China Internet service providers Satellite Internet access Spacecraft launched in 2024 Wireless networking Space technology