China’s Constellation of Satellites Is Unsettling the Pentagon. It Can Track a Fighter Jet as Well as an Asteroid

In 2022, an asteroid the size of the Golden Gate Bridge passed within about 1.2 million miles (1,981,468 km) of Earth. China had calculated its trajectory with impressive accuracy, which reassured the whole world by ruling out a feared collision. The only country concerned was the U.S., due to the technological capability of its rival.

Asteroid 1994 PC1, discovered in the mid-1990s by Australian astronomer Robert McNaught, is classified as potentially dangerous. In 2022, it passed close to Earth, raising fears of a potentially catastrophic collision with our planet. Determining its exact position and calculating its trajectory had become a vital issue.

This is where the Jilin-1 satellite constellation, launched by China since 2015, comes in. These small satellites are in sun-synchronous orbit. As of June 2023, there were 130 satellites in the constellation, but the operator, Chang Guang Satellite Technology, plans to expand it to 300 by 2025.

The system includes several generations of high-resolution video and hyperspectral imaging satellites. Its applications range from responding to natural disasters to gathering military intelligence, as well as monitoring large construction sites, forest fires, and air traffic.

Ironically enough, one of Jilin-1’s most notable achievements was turning away from Earth to observe the potentially hazardous asteroid 1994 PC1 before it approached our planet. It was able to do so with a margin of error two orders of magnitude smaller than ground-based telescopes.

Although the Jilin-1 satellites weren’t specifically designed for this task, they were able to calculate the asteroid’s trajectory with an accuracy of 20 miles. This ensured that 1994 PC1 would pass at a safe distance, five times the distance from the Earth to the Moon.

Military Escalation in Space

The accuracy of the satellite constellation has raised concerns in the U.S. due to fears of its military applications. The Pentagon estimates that China currently has 400 intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance satellites orbiting the Earth, with at least half of them forming one of the largest operational Earth observation networks.

These satellites are capable of capturing high-resolution images of almost any location on the planet, including small, fast, and stealthy objects like the U.S. F-22 Raptor fighter jet.

Despite these concerns, the U.S. has more satellites in orbit than any other country, with the majority of them belonging to SpaceX’s Starlink network. The country is already using this network for wartime situations to support its allied communications.

Additionally, SpaceX has started launching a military version of Starlink called “Starshield” at the request of the National Reconnaissance OfficeN (NRO). The NRO has described the Starshield constellation as “the most capable, diverse, and resilient space-based intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance system the world has ever seen.”

Meanwhile, Beijing is preparing to launch an orbital swarm of 12,992 satellites controlled by the newly established China Satellite Network Group in order to compete with Starlink. This escalation of satellites in orbit seems to be driven by a military competition, reminiscent of the space race of the 1960s.

This article was written by Matías S. Zavia and originally published in Spanish on Xataka.

Image | Chang Guang

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