China confirms a mega-constellation
July 14, 2023
By Chris Forrester
China has unveiled its plans for a fleet of ‘Very Low Earth Orbiting’ satellite to be completed in orbit by 2030.
The craft will come from a Chinese state-owned firm (The Second Academy of the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp. CASIC) and confirmed on the opening day of the 9th China (International) Commercial Aerospace Forum (9th CCAF) in Wuhan, Central China’s Hubei Province on July 12th.
The first satellite of the constellation will be launched by December this year. By 2024, nine more satellites will be launched, and together form a satellite data public service platform, to demonstrate the system’s capability to commercial users.
These Very Low orbiting satellites will operate below 300 kms in altitude and provide communications services as well as remote sensing and near-Earth observation and in particular emergency response tasks.
But such low operating heights means that orbiting craft decay that much sooner. The upside is that they can be very efficient, have lower launch costs and can be small in size.