China ups the ante in bid to rival SpaceX’s Starlink as G60 megaconstellation satellite rolls off the production line in Shanghai
- G60 Starlink project, along with the 13,000-satellite Guo Wang national network currently under construction, is widely seen as China’s answer to Elon Musk’s Starlink
- Digital-production plant located within the G60 Starlink industrial base is expected to have a production capacity of 300 satellites per year
China’s second low-earth satellite megaconstellation to provide broadband internet services began production in Shanghai on Wednesday, amid a push to explore potential in the space technology industry and as competition heightens with SpaceX’s Starlink.
The digital-production plant located within the G60 Starlink industrial base, which focuses on commercial satellite production and applications and is backed by the Shanghai municipal government, produced its first commercial satellite on Wednesday, according to authorities in the city’s Songjiang district.
By 2024, the factory would launch and operate at least 108 satellites to provide initial commercial services, and would also build a full industry chain that can compete globally by 2027, the district government said.
The factory is expected to have a production capacity of 300 satellites per year, according to Cao Jin, general manager of Shanghai Gesi Aerospace Technology, a state-owned company established in 2022 to run the G60 Starlink factory.
Under the factory’s mass production capabilities, the time required to build one satellite would be reduced from about two to three months to one and a half days, Cao added.
But the timeline is still lower than the daily production rate of six satellites by SpaceX’s Starlink.
