China Satellite Network Group

History

2023: Satellite Network Plan

China will create an analogue of Starlink. This became known on February 28, 2023.

Chinese researchers from space the University of Technology of the People's Liberation Army Beijing in say they plan to create a large constellation network of 12,992 satellites to compete with Elon Musk's Starlink.

A low-orbit network like Starlink will provide internet services to users around the world, researchers claim. Notably, the Chinese satellites will be designed to detect, identify, track and catalog data related to each Starlink satellite.

Moreover, the satellites will be equipped with artificial intelligence, including lasers and powerful microwaves designed to destroy Starlink satellites passing over China and other sensitive regions.

The project, owned by the newly formed China Satellite Network Group, is codenamed "GW."

Starlink has already revealed its plans to increase the satellite network to 12,000 by 2027 and mentioned 42,000 at a later date. The Chinese plan is to quickly deploy a group of GW satellites and recapture all places from Musk for low-orbit satellites in near-Earth space.

It could also allow them to deploy satellites in orbits "not yet reached by Starlink," the research team said.

The Chinese government is also pushing the idea of building an anti-Starlink coalition with other countries to force SpaceX to disclose sensitive information about the location of its satellites. At the end of February 2023, Starlink consists of more than 3,500 satellites providing Internet to about a million people around the world^[1].

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