China builds up its space power in Antarctica

China plans to develop its space facilities in Antarctica, as part of the country’s ambitious goals to become a leading space power.

State-owned China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), the main contractor for the country’s space program, is planning to build two new ground stations in Zhongshan Station in East Antarctica to support its growing network of ocean monitoring satellites. State media Global Times stated that the ground stations in the Antarctic scientific research base will help China’s eight marine observation satellites scout for marine resources exploitation, monitor the ecology of coastal zones and marine disasters, and develop China’s marine economy.

Ground stations help track the tens of thousands of satellites and other objects in Earth’s orbit and predict where they will be at any given time — a capability known as space situational awareness (SSA).

“China adding new satellite ground stations in Antarctica will help it receive data from its satellites that orbit in polar or near-orbit orbits much faster, as these satellites can send data to Earth during their multiple passes over or near the poles everyday, rather than during more numbers of limited passes over other areas,” Andrew Jones, a Helsinki-based reporter who has extensively covered China’s space program, told The China Project.

“This is not a unique development, as Zhongshan appears to already have some ground station capability and other countries including the U.S. and commercial companies like KSAT of Norway have satellite ground stations in Antarctica,” he added.

China’s big space dreams

China has ambitious goals to become the next leader in space. Chinese President Xí Jìnpíng 习近平 has reiterated calls to transform the country into a leading “space power,” and a 2022 government white paper states that “the space industry is a critical element of the overall national strategy.”

China’s number of launches and satellites has skyrocketed since 2015. CASC plans to launch over 60 space missions of more than 200 spacecraft this year, six more than the number of missions it conducted in 2022. Including commercial launches, China conducted 64 launches last year, second only to the United States.

China also sent the last of three modules to complete its Tiangong space station in October, and is already considering plans to expand it.

Meanwhile, Chinese companies are pouring money into BeiDou, China’s satellite navigation system, in a race for global dominance. In November 2022, the State Council released a report on the GPS rival, calling it “a component of the country’s national security and economic and social development strategy.” That month, the director of the China Satellite Navigation Office also said that the country’s new global positioning system, tentatively named BeiDou 4, would expand to include underwater communications and deep space.

A growing space and ground support network

China has a swath of ground stations all over the world under the China Deep Space Network (CDSN), a network of large antennas and communication facilities used for space missions to help communicate with satellites. Similar deep space networks are run by the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan, and India.

China’s network is run by the China Satellite Launch and Tracking Control General (CLTC), a sub-entity of the People’s Liberation Army Strategic Support Force Space Systems Department (PLASSF).

“China’s rate of space launches and number of satellites being sent into space each year has grown greatly over the last decade, and the need for capacity to receive data from these satellites has likewise increased,” Jones told The China Project. “While China has established a number of ground stations in South America and Africa and now also has commercial space firms looking to provide ground station support, it is also somewhat constrained geopolitically in where it can establish these facilities.”

Last month, the country sent 14 new satellites into space with remote sensing abilities.

The dark side of the moon

The 2022 white paper paper states that China’s dazzling array of satellites and ground stations are specifically for “peaceful purposes,” but in other countries there are concerns that China may use its extensive network for espionage or military purposes, given the space program’s close ties to the People’s Liberation Army, though some claim that these concerns are overblown.

“While there is no apparent explicit military angle to this development, data collected from remote sensing, weather, and other satellites could be used for military purposes and could be accessed faster,” Jones told The China Project.

Much of the technology used at ground stations can also be used to spy on foreign countries, an ability that is not limited to China. However, the lack of transparency in China’s overseas ground stations has fueled concerns about their intended uses.

China’s Espacio Lejano ground station, located in Patagonia, has been shrouded in controversy due to the lack of oversight from the Argentine government. The contract signed between Beijing and Buenos Aires reportedly specifies that Argentina “not interfere or interrupt” in the station’s affairs, which has fanned rumors of espionage and other military activities by China.

In 2020, Swedish Space Corporation (SSC) severed its contracts to help operate Chinese satellites from SSC’s ground stations, and said it will not seek new business with the country after two years of service.

However, any speculation over the purposes of China’s ground stations is overshadowed by the need to manage a growing amount of space junk from all over the world.