On Tuesday, China launched its first batch of internet satellites to form a mega constellation in hopes of rivaling Elon Musk’s Starlink internet satellite.
The constellation called ‘Qianfan’ meaning “Thousand sails,” is a low-Earth orbit set of more than 15,000 satellites that will create global internet coverage according to China’s plan.
According to the Chinese Academy of Science, a Long March 6A carrier rocket delivered the 18 spacecraft into a polar orbit from the Taiyuan launch base in the northern Shanxi Province of China, and the mission was a success.
The other high-profile constellations in space are Elon Musk’s Starlink and European firm Eutelsat’s OneWeb.
However, China has banned SpaceX’s Starlink in its territory and, thus, put out its own satellite that could provide major internet coverage.
China’s internet constellation launch highlights the country’s big ambitions and Beijing’s plan to throw over US dominance in the technological sector to stop the ongoing technology battle between the two nations.
During this battle, China has introduced several technologies to rival the US ones, and one of them is BeiDou, which rivals the US-owned Global Positioning System, GPS, currently being used across the world.
China seems to be winning this battle, as its Chang’e-6 lunar probe returned to Earth on Tuesday, bringing in first-ever samples of the unexplored side of the moon, while Beijing put out plans to send its first crewed mission to Mars in 2033.
