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Reference News reported on August 8Elon Musk's Starlink program has encountered a rival in China, according to a report on the U.S. Newsweek website on August 6. The report said that a launch on the 6th local time marked the beginning of a Chinese company becoming the Chinese version of Space Exploration Technologies Corporation.

It is reported that the rocket launched this time carried 18 low-Earth orbit communication satellites, which is the first batch of a total of 15,000 satellite launches.

The launch was carried out from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in Shanxi Province. According to NASA, low-Earth orbit satellites are located less than 2,000 kilometers above the Earth's surface, an altitude that allows for convenient communications and observation.

Shanghai Yuanxin Satellite Technology Co., Ltd. (the company that owns the satellite) calls this plan to provide international Internet services the "Thousand Sails Constellation" or "G60 Starlink."

The report said the project has the support of the Shanghai Municipal Government. Yuanxin Satellite's goal is to build a satellite network consisting of 15,000 satellites by 2030.

Another Chinese satellite constellation, the State Grid Constellation operated by China Satellite Network Group Co., Ltd., is also under construction, with the ultimate goal of building a satellite network consisting of 13,000 satellites.

The launch on the 6th comes as China establishes itself as a major player in space, a new frontier in great power competition.

The report also said that China carried out 67 space launch missions in 2023, second only to the United States, and developed and launched 221 spacecraft. China hopes to carry out 100 launches this year.

In recent years, China's space program has made the country a major player in space. In 2013, it became the third country to achieve a soft landing on the moon; in 2019, China achieved the first soft landing of a human probe on the far side of the moon; in June this year, China's Chang'e 6 brought samples from the far side of the moon back to Earth.

Yuanxin Satellite is one of several Chinese companies taking steps to build a large-scale satellite network. The development of satellite companies is part of a larger strategy to build self-sufficient technological capabilities amid global tensions.