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In China, a Megaplan Was Filed at the End of 2025 with the International Telecommunications Union, Requesting Nearly 200 Thousand Satellites. The Project, Divided into CTC-1 and CTC-2, Targets SpaceX, Predicts 3,660 Orbits and Expands Competition with the United States for Communications and Surveillance in Low Earth Orbit
China put on paper a megaplan with unprecedented ambition: the formal request to the International Telecommunications Union to launch nearly 200 thousand satellites into Earth’s orbit. The move occurred at the end of 2025 and was presented by a new body, the Radio Spectrum Utilization and Technological Innovation Institute.
The move elevates the competition with SpaceX, led by Elon Musk, which plans to operate 42 thousand Starlink satellites, and pushes Earth’s orbit into a more crowded and strategic phase. At the same time, the proposal exposes practical bottlenecks within China itself, which needs to multiply manufacturing and launches to meet international registration deadlines.
The Request to the ITU and the Entrance of a New Chinese Body
The starting point of the plan lies in the formalization of the request to the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), the entity where countries register parameters for spectrum usage and constellation operations.
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The Chinese request was made at the end of 2025, signaling that the strategy is already aiming to occupy regulatory and orbital space even before full execution.
The presentation occurred through the Radio Spectrum Utilization and Technological Innovation Institute, created as a new body to lead the initiative.
In practice, this indicates an institutional architecture designed to sustain a long-term project, with simultaneous demands for coordination, scheduling, technical standardization, and competition for priority in orbits and frequencies.
CTC-1 and CTC-2: Two Giant Constellations to Dominate Volume and Orbits
The megaproject is described in two blocks: CTC-1 and CTC-2.
Each constellation appears with approximately 96,714 satellites, distributed across 3,660 orbits.
Together, the two structures push the total close to 200 thousand units, a leap that alters the scale of any recent comparison.
The most direct impact of this volume is to transform the discussion into something beyond commercial telecommunications.
Constellations of this size change the balance of usage in low Earth orbit, with potential effects on communications and surveillance, as they enhance presence, coverage, and infrastructure persistence in space.
The operational consequence is also immediate: more satellites imply more demand for integration, testing, fleet management, orbital control, and coordination, as well as the need to maintain a high replacement and maintenance cadence, since the system only sustains itself if the entire chain functions as mass production.
The Declared Target: Rivalling Elon Musk and His 42 Thousand Starlink Satellites
The Chinese proposal aims to rival SpaceX, led by Elon Musk, which plans to operate 42 thousand Starlink satellites.
The difference in scale is at the heart of the strategy: by surpassing Musk’s plan by multiples, China signals its intention to compete for dominance of constellations not only through technology but through volume, orbit occupation, and regulatory positioning.
Here, the conflict shifts from mere market competition to power.
When a country attempts to operate a massive constellation, the logic involves control of critical infrastructure, influence over standards, and, most importantly, the ability to maintain operational continuity over time.
The Logistical Knot: Manufacturing 200 Thousand Satellites with an Annual Production of 300 and a Target of 600
The report highlights a contrast that weighs on the schedule: currently, China manufactures around 300 satellites per year, with plans to increase capacity to 600.
Even with this expansion, the number still falls short of the final target, requiring an industrial escalation beyond the current norm.
This is an objective limit, not rhetorical.
Without multiplying production capacity, the plan is trapped in an originating bottleneck: it is not enough to have registered orbits; it is essential to deliver satellites at a continuous pace, with sufficient standardization and reliability for a giant constellation.
The pressure increases because the CTC-1 and CTC-2 design does not suggest a small and gradual implementation.
It suggests a race for occupation, where delays could translate into time lost in a regulatory and competitive window.
The Launch Bottleneck: Record of 92 in 2025 and the Seven-Year Window
The challenge does not end at the factory. The text describes that, in 2025, China achieved its record of 92 launches.
It is a high mark, but insufficient to sustain the necessary frequency if the goal of nearly 200 thousand satellites is to be met within the time frame.
The schedule associated with registration requirements imposes a race: the mentioned window is seven years.
Putting such a large total into orbit within this limit would require a cadence leap that surpasses current capacity, both in the number of launches and in the ability to integrate, prepare, and operate missions in series.
This point is crucial to understanding the risk of the plan: it may be strategic in ambition, but simultaneously vulnerable in execution if logistics do not keep pace with what has been recorded.
Low Earth Orbit as a Geopolitical Battleground Between China and the United States
The dispute for space, in this context, is not limited to technology.
It encompasses explicit geopolitical considerations, with rising rivalry between China and the United States over dominion of low Earth orbit, not only as a technological showcase but as a vector for global security.
When the debate includes giant constellations, orbit becomes territory.
The massive presence of satellites implies the capacity for communication, coordination, and global surveillance, increasing the strategic value of what was once seen as mere technical infrastructure.
It is in this environment that the megaplan alters the tone of the game: it is not merely “more satellites.”
It is more competition for influence, more pressure for industrial capacity, and more friction in a finite space, where every new registration and each new constellation affects the balance of the system.
What the Plan Reveals About Ambition and Limits at the Same Time
The megaplan projects China as a power willing to compete for leadership in space through an aggressive route based on volume and occupation.
At the same time, it exposes a set of concrete limits: still low annual production, the need to multiply launches beyond recent records, and a timeline that does not wait.
This combination creates an operational paradox: the greater the ambition, the higher the risk of the plan becoming an instrument of geopolitical pressure even before it reaches full realization.
The mere registration, announcement, and design of CTC-1 and CTC-2 constellations already alter expectations, reactions, and competitors’ strategies.
In the end, Earth’s orbit appears as an open stage for a dispute, where the race is not just for satellites, but for the capacity to sustain a logistical and industrial system that operates without failures.
Do you think this megaplan will stall the orbital race due to an excess of satellites, or will it accelerate the dispute between China and the United States for control of low Earth orbit?
Passou da hora de destruir o império comunista chinês
Passou da hora de destruir o imperialismo americano que destrói e atrasa os outros países. A China é progresso. 2 bilhões de pessoas e sendo um país desenvolvido, ótimo exemplo de como o comunismo é melhor. Infame.