Recently, I took the time to sort out the layout of the global low-orbit satellite Internet and found that the smell of gunpowder in this space race was stronger than imagined.

Let's talk about the two major domestic players first.

On the side of the "State Grid Constellation" (GW), backed by the resources of the national team, the target is directly aimed at the scale of 12,992 satellites. After the first batch of networking satellites were launched in December last year, the pace has accelerated significantly - 1,300 units will be laid before 2030 (almost 10% of the progress), and there will be no dead ends in global signals by 2035. This style of play is steady and steady, typical of "building the skeleton first and then filling the meat".

On the other hand, the ambitions of the Thousand Sail Constellation (G60 project) are even wilder. The long-term plan is to directly pull more than 15,000 satellites, and by the end of this year, 648 satellites will be rotated first to cover key areas, the number will be doubled to 1,296 by the end of 2027, and global coverage will be achieved by then, and finally more than 15,000 ultimate networking will be completed by the end of 2030. In addition to broadband communications and the Internet of Things, they also want to get mobile phones directly connected to satellites - if this lands, the experience may be explosive.

Look at the other side of the ocean again.

SpaceX's Starlink is now the industry benchmark, and there is nothing to compete for. Musk has planned a super network of about 42,000 satellites, and as of June this year, more than 10,000 have been launched (including scrapped). Starlink's core competitiveness is not just about scale, the key is that their launch costs are low enough, and they have already begun to make money - streaming media, games and other high-bandwidth scenarios are using their services.

Interestingly, on Amazon's side. Although the Kuiper plan only planned to deploy 3,236 satellites, Bezos obviously couldn't wait - in order to catch up, they directly signed a contract with their old rival SpaceX to help them send satellites with Falcon 9. This wave of operations is somewhat like "the enemy of the enemy is a friend", business competition is competition, and cooperation must be cooperated.

On the whole, this low-orbit satellite war is essentially grabbing tickets to the space Internet in the next decade. Whoever completes the network first, who has a lower cost, and who has a better service experience can basically lock in the right to speak on this track.