China’s Thousand Sails satellite plan at Phase 2
April 1, 2025
While the planet now has global low Earth orbiting coverage from Elon Musk’s Starlink, China is quietly getting on with its own rival scheme, in the shape of its Qianfan (Thousand Sails) satellite constellation project.
Genesat (Gesi Aerospace), the project’s main contractor, has signed a contract for the second phase of its satellite manufacturing plant in Shanghai’s Songjiang district, which will be capable of producing 150 satellites of ~1,000 kgs in size per year, and 300 satellites below 500kgs, with a production cycle of one satellite per day.
The announcement came during 2025 Shanghai Global Investment Promotion Conference.
The company’s second factory project plans to invest 1.2 billion yuan. After the completion of the project, it will have a tonnage-level satellite pulsation production line, and the production capacity will be backward compatible with the batch production of satellites. The overall name for the scheme is G60 Spacesail.
The project was started in 2024 as a rival to the Starlink satellite constellation installed by SpaceX, and plans to comprise more than 15,000 satellites by the project’s end.
Based on Chinese state media China Central Television coverage, China has planned to launch and establish 648 satellites by the end of 2025 as part of the 1,296 satellites in the first phase of construction of the constellation, with the finished broadband multimedia satellite megaconstellation in place by 2030.
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