Official newspaper highlights Elon Musk’s company as an illustration of the US rapidly advancing the military utilization of low-orbit satellites
China’s official military newspaper has raised concerns about a race for armaments involving low-Earth satellites, pointing to developments like SpaceX’s recent agreement with the US Space Force.
Low-Earth orbit (LEO) constellations generally function at altitudes ranging from 300km to 1,500km (185-930 miles) above the Earth and are growing in significance for fields such as communications and satellite navigation.
However, in a set of articles spanning an entire page on Monday, PLA Daily cautioned: “The period of militarized deployment of low-orbit constellations is arriving at an accelerated rate.”
It noted that the “strategic importance of space” was becoming “unprecedentedly pronounced,” encompassing areas like satellite networks, orbital rivalry, and spectrum capture.
An article authored by Feng Songjiang and Wang Xiaoyan, from the Space Security Research Centre, stated: “Leveraging its early technological edge and mature commercial framework, the United States has persistently intensified the militarized application of low-orbit constellations.”