2023 The "Thousand Sails" program began with the creation of the "Shanghai Action Plan to Promote Commercial Aerospace Development and Create a Space Information Industry Highland (2023-2025)" program first announced on 20 November. The government of Shanghai raised 6.7 billion
Chinese Yuan ($943 million) in funds for the construction of the project, which was initially dubbed the G60 Starlink. The first flat panel satellite for the megaconstellation was assembled in December 2023. The satellite's facilities were allocated to the state owned Shanghai Gesi Aerospace Technology (Genesat).
2024 On 6 August 2024 at 06:42 UTC, China launched its first set of eighteen flat panel satellites associated with the project using the
Long March 6A launch vehicle, China's 35th orbital launch in the year 2024. The rocket launched from the
Taiyuan Launch Complex located in the north of
Shanxi Province, and brought the satellites into a
polar orbit. The
Chinese Academy of Sciences and the
China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation both reported that the space mission was "a complete success". On 15 October 2024 at 11:06 UTC, a
Long March 6A rocket launched the second group of eighteen Qianfan satellites into a polar orbit. On 5 December 2024 at 04:41 UTC, a third group of eighteen Qianfan satellites were launched into a polar orbit by a
Long March 6A rocket.
Future Based on
Chinese state media China Central Television coverage, China has planned to launch and establish 648 satellites by the end of 2025 as part of the 1,296 satellites in the first phase of construction of the constellation, with the finished broadband multimedia satellite megaconstellation consisting of over 15,000 internet satellites. Of these, 108 satellites were planned to be deployed in 2024 in separate launches of 36 and 54 internet satellites each, and would operate in "Ku, Q and V" bands. The system also planned to annex finite frequencies and
orbital slots, and also provide
data security. == Launches ==