To suppress Elon Musk's "Starlink" a Chinese plan to launch about 13,000 satellites

An American newspaper revealed that China is planning to build a huge satellite network in near-Earth orbit to provide Internet services to users all over the world, and researchers indicate that one of the goals of the scheme is to suppress the "Starlink" satellite constellation owned by billionaire Elon Musk.

China plans to build a huge satellite network in near-earth orbit to provide Internet services to users around the world.

Researchers indicate that one of the goals of the Chinese scheme is to suppress the Starlink satellite constellation owned by the American company, SpaceX, which is owned by billionaire Elon Musk.

The Starlink satellite network is concerned with providing satellite Internet service.

According to the American newspaper " Insider ", concerned with money and trade, the Chinese project bears the code name "GW".

"The GW constellation will include 12,992 satellites owned by the newly established China Satellite Network Group Co," the newspaper quoted Assistant Professor Xu Kan at the University of Aerospace Engineering of the Chinese People's Liberation Army in Beijing as saying.

The launch schedule of these satellites is still unknown, but the number will compete with the size of the American Starlink network, which will include more than 12,000 satellites by 2027, according to its data.

Shaw's team said it is likely that the GW satellite constellation will be deployed quickly "before Starlink is complete."

This would "ensure our country has a place in low orbit and prevent the Star Link constellation from over-preempting low-orbit resources," the team wrote in a research paper.

The researchers said that Chinese satellites can also be placed in "orbits that the Starlink constellation has not yet reached," adding that they "will gain opportunities and advantages at other orbital altitudes."

They explained that the Chinese satellites could be equipped with an anti-Starlink payload to carry out various tasks, such as conducting "close and long-term monitoring of Starlink satellites."

But a recent study by the China National Space Administration called for cooperation and said that competing communications satellite networks could harm each other.

According to SpaceX data, the Starlink network, which now includes more than 3,000 satellites in orbit, is expected to grow to more than 40,000 satellites.

The Chinese Xu team said that China's space surveillance and defense capacity could not handle so many satellites.

"The Starlink satellites may use their orbital maneuverability to strike and destroy nearby targets in space," the Chinese researchers said.

They said China plans to build more powerful radar systems backed by new technology to locate and track Starlink satellites.

According to the researchers, the radar and other detection procedures will be used to update the "Starlink catalog," which will eventually contain detailed data on each satellite.