China begins building space-based computing center with satellite launch

China successfully launched a group of 12 satellites on Wednesday aboard a Long March-2D carrier rocket, marking the debut deployment of a space computing satellite constellation, dubbed the "Three-Body Computing Constellation."

The rocket lifted off at 12:12 p.m. Beijing Time from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China.

Jointly developed by Zhejiang Lab – a research institute based in Hangzhou, east China's Zhejiang Province – and international partners, the constellation is designed to eventually comprise thousands of satellites with a combined computing power of 1,000 peta operations per second (POPS), according to Wang Jian, a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and the director of the lab. Wang is also the founder of Alibaba Cloud – one of China's leading cloud computing platforms. 

The constellation is designed to perform real-time data processing in orbit, addressing efficiency issues in traditional satellite systems and accelerating the integration of artificial intelligence into space-based applications.

"Our goal is to scale up the computing power of a single satellite from the teraflop to the petaflop level, and to achieve seamless interconnectivity between satellites, just like how the internet links individual computers," Wang said in his remarks about the constellation during the 2024 World Internet Conference (WIC) Wuzhen Summit.

"With a computing constellation, even a single satellite can generate value. This has profound implications for the future of the space industry."

Each satellite in this initial batch is equipped with a domestically developed 8-billion-parameter AI model capable of processing satellite data across levels L0 to L4 (with L0 referring to raw data directly collected by the satellite), CGTN learned from the lab. The constellation also supports full inter-satellite connectivity.

In addition to AI-powered data processing, the satellites will carry out experimental missions, including cross-orbit laser communication and astronomical science observations.

The project reflects China's growing ambitions to extend its computing power into space, an emerging frontier that could eventually complement terrestrial cloud infrastructure and support data-intensive applications like AI and remote sensing.