06 November 2016
China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) unveiled the first satellite smartphone designed for use with the country’s a first mobile communications satellite, Tiantong-1 (TT-1), at the six-day Airshow China in Zhuhai, Guangdong, which wraps up on 06 November. CASC launched TT-1 into an equator-hugging, geostationary orbit about 35,000km above the Earth on 6 August. Satellite experts said the new satellite smartphone was a product of the “space-based Silk Road”, a long-term strategy proposed by Chinese aerospace companies, institutions and scholars to support the country’s “One Belt, One Road” initiative. “The TT-1 smartphone is so far capable of covering the territory of China and the whole South China Sea,” an engineer from CASC’s Fifth Academy, based in Xian, Shaanxi province, said. “We are going to expand our coverage to the whole world by launching a network TT satellites in the next five years, because our ultimate goal is to replace Inmarsat, or even surpass it.”
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