On May 3, 2024, the Chang'e-6 lunar probe and the Long March-5 Y-8 carrier rocket combination were located on the launch pad of the Wenchang Space Launch Site in Hainan Province, China.
Eduardo Baptista | Reuters
China on Tuesday launched the first batch of internet satellites that will form part of a constellation it hopes will rival SpaceX's Starlink.
Known as Qianfan, the constellation is a low-Earth orbit constellation of more than 15,000 satellites that China says will provide global internet coverage.
According to the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Long March-6A carrier rocket launched from the Taiyuan Launch Center in northern China's Shanxi Province to deliver the first batch of 18 satellites into space, marking a complete success in the mission.
China plans to deploy 648 satellites in the first phase of constellation construction by 2025 to establish a global network, according to state media CCTV.
China's constellation, known as a low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellite constellation, is designed to provide internet coverage. Two high-profile names in the space are Starlink, developed by Musk's SpaceX, and OneWeb, owned by European companies Eutelsat.
The launch of the cyber constellation highlights China's vast space ambitions and Beijing's efforts to overturn U.S. dominance in the field as the technology war between the two countries widens.
In 2020, China completed the Beidou network, a global navigation system made up of a constellation of satellites that is comparable to the U.S. government-owned Global Positioning System (GPS), which is widely used around the world.
In June, China's Chang'e-6 lunar probe returned to Earth on Tuesday, bringing back the first samples from the unexplored far side of the moon. Beijing has also developed plans for its first manned mission to Mars in 2033.