International Telecommunication Union (ITU)

New Capabilities

Processing China's applications under 14-year deployment rules

There are roughly 10,000 active satellites orbiting Earth. In late December 2025, China filed paperwork to launch 200,000 more. The filings, submitted to the International Telecommunication Union by a newly formed state-backed institute, would secure spectrum and orbital priority for the largest satellite constellation ever proposed—more than five times the size of SpaceX's full Starlink ambitions.

Updated Jan 19