China's 'Thousand Sails Constellation' and Its Satellite Plans

TapTechNews August 6th news, today at 14:44, the first batch of 18 networking satellites of the Thousand Sails Constellation (G60 Satellite Constellation), known as the Chinese version of Starlink, was successfully launched into the air at the LC-9A of the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center by the method of one rocket with 18 satellites on board the Long March 6A carrier rocket.

The end user of this batch of satellites is Shanghai Yuanxin Satellite Technology Co., Ltd. It adopts the stackable flat-panel satellite platform independently developed by Shanghai GeSi Aerospace, and each satellite weighs 300 kilograms. Its G60 satellite digital factory is the first satellite Internet industry cluster carrier in China. Shanghai plans to build the first satellite Internet industry cluster in China integrating innovative research and development, production and manufacturing, and application landing on this basis.

According to the official plan, the Thousand Sails Constellation is expected to complete the launch of 108 satellites this year, and the first phase will launch 1296 satellites (the first stage plans to achieve regional network coverage with 648 satellites by the end of 2025, and to provide global network coverage by 2027), and in the future, it will build a networking of more than 14,000 low-earth orbit broadband multimedia satellites.

As TapTechNews knows, China has currently planned three ten-thousand-satellite constellation plans:

GW Constellation: Led by China Satellite Network Group Co., Ltd. (China Satellite Network), it plans to build a main body of the Chinese Starlink consisting of 13,000 satellites.

Thousand Sails Constellation G60 Satellite Constellation plan: It is jointly built by 9 major cities in the Yangtze River Delta such as Shanghai to build a satellite Internet industry cluster, and it is expected to achieve the provision of multi-service integrated services by 15,000 satellites by the end of 2030.

Honghu-3 (Swan Goose-3): The pre-release information (API) document submitted by Shanghai Blue Arrow Hongqing Technology Co., Ltd. to the ITU (International Telecommunication Union) shows that the Swan Goose-3 constellation plans to launch a total of 10,000 satellites in 160 orbital planes.