A recent visit by Global Times reporters to Galaxy Aerospace’s laboratories and production lines captures a Chinese space sector racing from prototype to real‑world trials. In Chengdu, a firefighting drone mounted with a domestically developed phased‑array terminal was flown against live targets while multiple low‑Earth‑orbit (LEO) internet satellites relayed high‑definition video and control signals to a remote command post in Beijing, more than 1,500 kilometres away. The test closed a full operational loop — from on‑scene imagery uplink to remote command decisions and precise payload release — demonstrating the practical benefits of wide‑area satellite coverage for emergency response in terrain beyond terrestrial network reach.
The demonstrations are part of a broader push to turn what Chinese planners call “space new infrastructure” into everyday services. Galaxy’s “Small Spider Web” experimental constellation routinely passes over Beijing, allowing engineers to carry out mobile connection trials from cars and mountain roads. In these tests, a car‑mounted phased array established links that supported live upload of dashcam footage and downloads of large files, with transfer rates Galaxy engineers describe as reaching roughly 200 Mbps. The same technical route underpins the company’s longer‑term effort to enable direct‑to‑phone satellite connectivity — an ambition that requires satellites to carry very large phased arrays and to solve power, thermal and cost constraints.
Technical innovation at Galaxy includes a “wing‑array integration” design that folds a large phased array into a satellite’s solar wing to reconcile antenna aperture needs with launch and cost limits. Galaxy has also pushed down the price of millimetre‑wave phased‑array hardware, claiming roughly a tenfold cost reduction versus a decade ago and completing batch production of AiP (antenna‑in‑package) wafer‑level multi‑beam arrays. On April 1, 2025, Galaxy launched a test satellite with phone‑direct capability from Jiuquan on a Long March 2D; it is now undergoing experiments in direct connectivity and space–ground network fusion.
The industrial story is as important as the engineering. China logged a record 92 orbital launches in 2025, nearly 20 of which placed internet satellites into LEO, a deployment pace that industry executives say signals moving from validation to scaled industrialisation. Satellite makers are expanding their supplier base beyond traditional aerospace firms, importing photovoltaic suppliers and high‑volume automotive parts manufacturers into satellite production to lower costs and accelerate throughput. Projects under way in China envisage constellation sizes measured in the tens of thousands of satellites; one plan, the Shanghai‑based “Qianfan” constellation, targets roughly 15,000 satellites and already has more than a hundred in orbit after several cluster launches.
Policy and market forces align behind the push. A November 2025 State Council guidance advocated cultivating new application scenarios — including low‑altitude and space–air–ground integrated services such as disaster prevention and remote sensing — to accelerate commercial uptake. Galaxy and peers position LEO broadband as core infrastructure for a future “air‑space‑ground” communications fabric that can connect remote mountains, shipping lanes, polar routes and low‑altitude unmanned vehicles, unlocking new logistics, low‑altitude economy and emergency‑response markets while extending China’s telecom reach.
The technical and commercial path ahead is nevertheless complex. Achieving continuous global coverage demands hundreds to thousands of satellites in coordinated orbits so that each passing satellite hands off traffic to the next. Higher service quality requires denser constellations, which raises launch and operations costs and compounds orbital management challenges. Direct‑to‑phone services face particularly steep hurdles: consumer handsets are power‑limited, so satellites must provide large effective antenna gain, precise beam steering and substantial spaceborne power. At the same time, rapid constellation growth will intensify concerns over spectrum allocation, space‑traffic management and debris mitigation — issues that will require international coordination even as competition among major providers intensifies.
For now, China’s mix of fast launch cadence, falling component costs and a vast industrial supply chain gives domestic players a credible route to mass deployment. Executives at Galaxy predict a consumer‑facing, reasonably complete LEO broadband network by around 2030, with niche industrial and emergency applications already viable in the near term. If that timeline holds, the coming half‑decade will see satellite internet shift from demonstration projects to a significant commercial market, reshaping connectivity in under‑served regions and creating a new axis of competition in global telecommunications.