(intriguing music)
- [Narrator] 362 million people
don't have internet access in China.
That's roughly 30 million more people
than the entire US population.
But this rocket holds a possible solution
to help China close the gap.
Inside it are low-Earth orbit satellites
capable of providing high-speed internet access
even in remote areas.
In China, this technology is still experimental
- [Controller] Ignition.
- [Narrator] But Starlink,
a subdivision of the American company SpaceX,
has already launched 4,768 of them,
making it the leader across the globe.
Although space is vast, these satellites operate
in a specific area that's quickly getting more crowded.
To ensure its place, China is building up its capabilities.
Just two decades ago,
59.1 million people in China were online,
just 4.6% of its population then.
Now, it's over 1 billion people, 74% of the population.
So is the country known for its rapid development,
capable of rivaling Starlink?
Of the roughly 8,000 functioning satellites
currently in orbit, about 55% belong to Starlink
and the position of its satellites is key.
For decades, satellite internet providers
relied on geostationary satellites.
These satellites are far away,
about 22,000 miles above the Earth's surface.
That distance lets them cover a large area
and reach remote parts of the globe,
but it takes longer for data to travel
between the satellite and the user.
This means the broadband has high latency and slower speeds.
Often, geostationary satellites offer speeds
at least 25 megabits per second,
which is enough to stream in HD
and can support about one to three devices.
But satellites in low-Earth orbit or LEO, are much closer,
no more than 1,200 miles from Earth's surface.
This means that while a LEO satellite
can't cover as much area as a geostationary satellite,
it can provide more stable and faster internet speeds.
Though SpaceX got its start launching rockets,
it has built up a big business selling broadband
powered by LEO satellites.
And a key to its success?
It owns every step of the process.
SpaceX manufactures the satellites
and launches them with its own Falcon 9 is rockets
and Falcon 9 boosters,
the part that blasts the rocket off the ground, are reusable
saving SpaceX money on launch costs.
- They have a very capable launch division
that is regularly blasting satellites off for customers,
for governments, and for itself.
- [Narrator] And it can launch dozens of satellites
into low-Earth orbit per trip.
In 2014, China opened its space sector
up to private investment.
Five years later, startups in China
received over $314 million in funding.
The only country that attracted more startup funding
was the US. - Ignition.
- [Narrator] In the same year,
SpaceX alone received $962 million.
To be more self-sufficient,
China has been investing in key tech like LEO satellites.
In 2021, it established SatNet, a state-owned company
it hopes will streamline the process to launch satellites
and form a broadband network.
So far, China says it will build at least 7,800 satellites.
Plus, the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation
and the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation
have each launched experimental satellites
into low-Earth orbit.
And startup GalaxySpace
launched several operational satellites last year
to begin its 1,000-satellite constellation,
but so far, no enterprise in China has created a rocket
to launch these satellites
that's as advanced as the Falcon 9.
However, Beijing Tianbing Technology
appears to be getting closer.
While the company doesn't have a reusable rocket yet,
it sent a liquid fuel rocket into orbit
for the first time earlier this year.
Experts say this is a crucial step
to creating a reusable rocket.
Ultimately, the company wants to develop rockets
that can deploy up to 60 satellites in a single launch,
similar to Falcon 9's capabilities.
- It's not easy to like get off of Earth and like deploy,
you know, hundreds or thousands
or tens of thousands of satellites into that part of space.
You need a rocket that can,
you know, make those trips over and over and over again.
Satellites in low-Earth orbit have a shelf life,
they have to be replaced, so you need to have a capability
to kind of continually launch satellites
- [Narrator] Altogether, this makes
the barrier to entry quite high.
McKinsey estimates the cost to launch
an operable constellation is between $5 to $10 billion
with yearly operating costs
running another $1 to $2 billion.
So what's the benefit?
- The marketplace that SpaceX
has always been after is global.
- [Narrator] SpaceX said in April
that Starlink was available in more than 50 countries,
and within the next few years, it expects to operate
in many more countries across Africa and Asia.
- SpaceX has been going around the world
to get permission from national regulators
to sell Starlink connections.
- [Narrator] But it's not alone.
Cooperation in space is a key part
of China's Belt and Road Initiative,
a global infrastructure project.
Last year, China said it had formed
149 space cooperation agreements
with 46 national space agencies
and already it's provided countries across Africa,
Europe, and Asia with Beidou,
a global navigation satellite system
that rivals US-owned GPS.
Major Chinese companies
built infrastructure across the world too.
Up to 70% of 4G network infrastructure across Africa
was built by Huawei.
- There are, you know, billions of people around the world
that don't have have any internet at all.
Beyond that, there's like huge demand just generally
for high-speed internet.
- [Narrator] And that demand
is part of what's driving Starlink, China
and companies everywhere
to build these LEO constellations, but-
- Satellite internet, at least right now,
faces like real cost challenges relative
to traditional on the ground terrestrial infrastructure
for internet connections.
I don't think that like low-Earth orbit satellites
will take over and provide
like global high-speed internet capacity.
- [Narrator] One of the biggest concerns
facing the sector's expansion
is overcrowding in low-Earth orbit.
By 2030, US officials estimate
there will be 58,000 satellites,
about a 725% increase from the number in the sky right now.
In just the past two years, the FCC received applications
for more than 64,000 satellites,
and experts at NASA and the FCC
fear that more satellites could mean more issues.
Already there are over 26,000 pieces of debris,
at least the size of a softball in low-Earth orbit
that could destroy a satellite on impact.
- If you assume that like tens of thousands
of additional satellites are launched and deployed
to low-Earth orbit in the coming years,
there's gonna be a real need for coordination communication,
finding ways for all these operators
to sort of know where their devices are located,
how they're moving and what
like the potential threat is for a collision.
Low-Earth orbit, it's sort of like a commons right now.
There's some treaties that govern space and there are also
what experts and government officials call norms
around good space behavior.
It's a little more open-ended and dependent
on actors there to sort of work together and communicate.
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