China Unveils Star Hub Orbital AI Network With 1,000-Satellite Plan
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Wait, for real? Launched as in "rocket took off and put the thing into orbit"? Apparently not; just Reuters things. The 32 PFLOPS central satellite doesn't even have a launch date. Still. Eventually the Chinese will have their own orbital compute. This precedes Elon's plan btw.
Shanghai Xingshu Tiansuan Space Technology officially launched the inaugural tier of its "Star Hub" space-computing network at the 2026 World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC), targeting a final deployment of 1,000 satellites. The Tiansuan Constellation is engineered to shift AI processing directly into low Earth orbit, drastically reducing latency and terrestrial bandwidth strain. The rollout is structured in three initial stages: 6 satellites in Phase 1, scaling to 24 satellites in Phase 2, and expanding to 300 satellites in Phase 3. The completed constellation will deliver an unprecedented 5 POPS (peta operations per second) of collective computing power. The flagship Starhub 1 satellite operates with a design power of 30KW, utilizing advanced gallium-arsenide energy solutions. This launch marks a critical catalyst for China's commercial space and AI sectors, establishing the country's first open orbital computing network and positioning domestic infrastructure to compete directly with global aerospace-AI integrations like SpaceX's xAI initiatives.