China has taken a major step forward in its bid to create a rival to SpaceX’s Starlink this week by launching the first of what it hopes will be a constellation of 14,000 satellites beaming broadband internet coverage from space.
Eighteen satellites were blasted into low Earth orbit on Tuesday in the inaugural launch for the government-backed Qianfan, or Spacesail, constellation, state media reported. The constellation – hailed in domestic media as China’s answer to US-based SpaceX’s Starlink – aims to join a handful of planned or operational large-scale space projects from providers in various countries offering broadband satellite internet services.
” While the launch of Qianfan is part of Beijing’s broader push to boost space capabilities and commercial applications, its launch also shows China is “recognizing the dual use … potential of these capabilities from the standpoint of informational superiority or data flow control,” said Tomas Hrozensky, a senior researcher at the nonprofit think tank European Space Policy Institute in Vienna.
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