Artist’s impression of the Qianfan satellite megaconstellation
Video surveillance
China has begun construction of a mega constellation that will eventually include nearly 14,000 satellites, but the launch of the first 18 is already raising concerns from astronomers about their impact on the night sky.
The Qianfan megaconstellation is intended to transmit the Internet to the ground and compete with systems like SpaceX’s Starlink constellationwhich already has more than 6,000 satellites and has doubled the number of active satellites in space.
