On May 9, the Changzheng-3B launch vehicle launched the experimental Chinese satellite Zhihui Tianwang-01 into space from the Xichang Cosmodrome in southwestern China at 09:43 Beijing time (Smart SkyNet-0) creation of a space Internet network skynet In the future, 16 or 32 similar satellites will be launched into space to create a global network. The altitude of SkyNet satellites will be 20 thousand km, that is, 40 times higher than the devices starlink.

The first satellite of the future network will be an experimental platform for testing the operation of communication technologies – from radio frequency to space laser to broadcasting data in space via satellite-to-satellite beam. SkyNet group’s higher orbit will increase signal delays compared to the company’s Starlink network SpaceXbut the yield should not suffer too much.

parallel to the network skynet China will deploy two more groups of communication satellites into space: GuoWang and G60 Starlink; both consist of 12,000 satellites. These will be networks in low Earth orbit, exactly like Starlink. In the future, SkyNet networks in medium orbit will be combined with networks in low orbit. It is interesting that the ground-based surveillance system with facial recognition for Chinese citizens is also called SkyNet, but the connection between the ground-based video surveillance system and the space Internet network is currently unknown.

Chain skynet It will be located slightly below the GPS and BeiDou networks, whose satellites orbit at an altitude of 20,200 km and 21,500 km, respectively. China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), China’s state-owned rocket and space company, is developing the SkyNet devices and network. According to developers’ calculations, the future space-based network will provide Internet access to all types of users in all scenarios and in all areas.

“Once completed, the network will deliver personalized broadband services worldwide without ‘blind spots’.” – said the CASC representative after the announcement of the successful launch of the satellite.