Science & technology | A thousand sails
Why China is building a Starlink system of its own
When it is finished, Qianfan could number 14,000 satellites, rivalling Elon Musk’s system
|5 min read
Editor’s note: On December 16th GuoWang, a satellite constellation backed by China’s central government, launched its first batch of ten satellites. It would be the country’s second competitor for Starlink.
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This article appeared in the Science & technology section of the print edition under the headline “A thousand sails”
From the December 14th 2024 edition
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