With 7,500 satellites launched so far, Starlink has not only transformed satellite communications and Internet access: it is generating great geopolitical tensions.

The megaconstellation of satellites in low orbit has proven to be a profitable business for SpaceX, which markets broadband Internet in more than 100 countries. But also a strategic advantage for the United States that other powers cannot ignore, as the war in Ukraine or the deployment of Starshield, the government version of Starlink, has made evident.

China and the European Union have already moved to strengthen your autonomy in satellite communications. China has just launched the first 10 satellites of its state-run Guowang constellation, and Europe has just closed a deal worth more than €10 billion to deploy Iris² over the next 12 years.

China has launched Guowang, its own Starlink

China launched on Monday the first 10 satellites of the Guowang state constellationwhich in Mandarin means “national network”, and whose Westernized name is SatNet.

Guowang has been in development since 2020 with the direct support of Xi Jinping’s government. For this reason, the first satellites have not been launched on one of the many commercial rockets of the Chinese private sector, but with a CZ-5B rocket from the Chinese Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT), which costs 70 million dollars. per launch.

Although the CZ-5B is famous for its uncontrolled reentry, this time it took off with a YZ-2 upper stage, which was in charge of taking the satellites into orbit, so there was no need to worry about where the Chinese rocket would fall. 21 tons.

China plans to launch about 13,000 Guowang satellites into low orbit: 6,000 smaller ones of 225 kg at about 500 km altitude (comparable to Starlink) and 7,000 larger ones of about 600 kg at 1,145 km altitude (where they will last for more years).

The satellites will be manufactured by different state and private companies, starting with the China Association of Science and Technology (CAST). Those in the lowest orbit will have a transmission capacity of 48 Gbps.

In addition to this “state Starlink”, in China there is another mega-constellation in the making that is even more ambitious and has the support of the Shanghai government. In fact, the company SSST (Shanghai Spacecom Satellite Technology) has already launched 54 satellites of its G60/Qianfen network, which expects to have 15,000 satellites once completed.

Meanwhile, Europe gives the green light to Iris²

The European Union has committed 10.6 billion euros in the Iris² construction. It is Europe’s most ambitious satellite constellation since Galileo (Europe’s GPS) and Copernicus (the world’s largest Earth observation satellite network).

Designed to eliminate Europe’s strategic disadvantage with respect to Starlink, Iris² will not initially be a commercial service. It aims to provide sovereign and secure communications to EU Member States while boosting the competitiveness of the European space industry.

Another key difference is the number of launches and the orbits in which Iris² will operate. The European constellation (modest, compared to its Chinese and American counterparts) will combine more than 290 satellites in low orbit (LEO), medium orbit (MEO) and geostationary orbit (GEO) to achieve complete coverage with fewer satellites, sacrificing less latency achieved by megaconstellations in low orbit.

61% of Iris² funds are public. The rest comes from a consortium of companies led by the French company Eutelsat, the Spanish company Hispasat and the Luxembourg company SES. The “SpaceRise” consortium has a 12-year concession to design, build and operate the satellite constellation.

Amazon’s OneWeb and Kuiper take shape

Eutelsat is the largest private investor in Iris² with a commitment of €2 billion. The French operator hopes to integrate publicly funded technologies into its OneWeb satellitesa Starlink competitor that offers low-latency Internet from low orbit as a commercial service for planes, ships, trucks, the military, and carriers.

OneWeb, which is owned by the British government in addition to the French government since it was purchased by Eutelsat, has launched more than 630 satellites with Soyuz rockets from Russia, LVM3 from India and Falcon 9 from SpaceX. Its satellites are at an altitude of 1,200 km and are Starlink’s main commercial competitor.

To these we must add the constellation Amazon Kuiperwhich has permission to launch 3,200 satellites and will possibly accelerate the launch rate once Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket comes into operation. Starlink, for its part, has permission to launch up to 30,000 satellites and hopes to offer 1 Gbps connections worldwide when it begins launching them with Starship.

Image | SpaceX

In techopiniones | SpaceX has asked for permission to put Starlink satellites at a lower altitude. It is the previous step to offering 1 Gbps connections