13 March 2018
China plans to put more than 300 satellites into a low Earth orbit to provide global communication services, with the first satellite set to be launched this year. The whole constellation is expected to be completed in 2023. The constellation named Hongyan, "wild goose," is designed to meet increasing demand for Internet services, including faster and more stable global broadband access. The head of the China Academy of Space Technology (CAST), Zhang Hongtai said, "Our research is quite mature. Hongyan is composed of 54 core satellites and the final network will contain more than 300 satellites. We plan to put the first test satellite into orbit in 2018."
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