千帆 - Qianfan - Thousand Sails, Spacesail , G60 — Overview of China’s Most Ambitious LEO Communications Constellation

Why does China’s largest LEO satellite constellation have so many names? What is already operational, and where will the fiercest competitive struggle take place? Overview and analytics by SkyLinker.

---

• Project History and Names: 千帆 - Qianfan - Thousand Sails, Spacesail, G60

• Qianfan Architecture and Technology

• Launches

• Commissioning and Target Markets

• Summary

---

The Chinese project Qianfan (Chinese: 千帆, “Thousand Sails”), which frequently appears in English-language materials as Spacesail and in early references as G60, is one of China’s most ambitious attempts to create a mass-market Low Earth Orbit (LEO) communications satellite constellation. It is often compared to Starlink, but it is more accurate to describe it as an attempt to build a scalable satellite broadband infrastructure that can serve as an alternative in markets and scenarios where Western systems are politically, regulatory, or commercially “unacceptable”.

Multiple names for this project coexist in the public sphere. The project has undergone several rebrandings, which has created some confusion. However, these are all names for the same project:

• 千帆 (Qiānfān) or Thousand Sails

• Spacesail

• G60

• 星链 (Xīng liàn) or China Starlink, or simply Starlink in Chinese