This is

This is CBS I on the World with John Bachelor.

Here's John Bachelor.

Rick, I also learned that China is contesting in terms of satellites, especially

low-Earth orbit satellites.

The U.S. is by far the leader among the Earth 4,500 so far out of 6,000 in orbit.

The Chinese only have 600, but they're coming hard.

Now, lower orbit satellites are chiefly communications satellites having to do with commercial property.

They're also maintaining the GPS system that is critical for defense matters and for commercial matters.

We all use the GPS system.

Do the Chinese have a comparable system or do they use the same one we do?

China has its own GPS called Bido and that's comprised about 35-36 medium-Earth orbit satellites that perform the same functions as GPS,

but the Bido system has a secondary text-based communication capability, which would be

militarily very useful for the PLA in the conduct of global military operations.

But the bulk of the American satellite number is comprised of the Starlink constellation from Elon Musk's SpaceX

Corporation. It's a mega constellation and China is also working up to start deploying its own mega

constellations. There are probably two Chinese concerns that will be lofting two mega constellations beginning in just a few years

and going on probably into the next decade.

So China will be contesting low-Earth orbit in terms of the numbers of satellites very quickly.

And when we come to satellites, we then have to concern ourselves with anti-satellite technology.

As I understand it, there was a Chinese satellite, I believe 2007, that was used to demonstrate how to take

other satellites down, exploded in orbit, and the debris of that event still challenges lots of satellites including the

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