By Sarah Cope | 2025-11-26

Earlier this year, China successfully launched the first AI-enabled satellites of its planned megaconstellation, as experts warned that space-based supercomputing has far-reaching security implications for sovereign nations.

Twelve satellites were sent into orbit in May, aboard a Long March 2D rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in China’s Gobi desert, marking the start of the country's "Three-Body Computing Constellation."

Chinese state media outlets describe a planned AI-enabled satellite fleet of thousands, with some reporting there will be up to 2,800 satellites in total.

Once fully operational, this fleet could deliver around 1,000 peta-operations per second (POPS) of computing power, as well as laser inter-satellite links, terabytes of on-board storage, and advanced mapping sensors.

The limited transmission bandwidths of Earth-based systems and their heavy reliance on energy supply can limit AI's potential. But in space, some of the terrestrial confines of AI power are taken out of the equation.

Satellites are better able to cool themselves in space -- what is called thermal disposition -- and are able to continuously harvest solar power.

And space-based satellites offer "edge-computing" capabilities, where data is processed through a series of energy-intensive computations aboard the satellite, before being transmitted back to Earth.

These technical advantages underscore the utility of space-based AI infrastructure, but the megaconstellation's potential to expand China's powerful surveillance capabilities has raised concerns among international experts.

Expanded surveillance?

China’s surveillance track record provides a window into what powerful tracking and imaging technologies could enable in another domain, experts warn.

Over the last decade, Beijing has integrated high volumes of cameras, biometric databases, and facial and gait recognition systems with predictive policing practices and expanded data collection and storage.

Human rights organizations say these systems have been disproportionately used to target ethnic and religious minorities, including the Uighurs, a predominantly Muslim Turkic ethnic minority from China's Xinjiang region.

Chinese authorities in Xinjiang use a mass surveillance and big data system called the Integrated Joint Operations Platform to detect arbitrarily defined "abnormality," according to Human Rights Watch.

Surveillance activity and data harvesting is also carried out through the use of spyware concealed inside Uighur language applications such as messaging services, prayer time apps and dictionaries, the Guardian reports.

Arbitrarily defined "pre-crime" activities, such as the use of a virtual private network (VPN) or sharing religious content, can lead to being detained in a re-education camp, it says.

Authorities also have used surveillance systems to spy on dissidents and even members of the general population.

The persistent, high-resolution, and near-real-time observation enabled by a powerful AI satellite constellation means China could take its domestic experience and wield it on an international stage, experts warn.

It could be used to identify the movements of foreign civilians or militaries, scan infrastructure projects and maritime traffic, or employ predictive modeling.

Information warfare

A megaconstellation also would guarantee eyes on large swathes of the planet, meaning most other nations would have to contend with high-resolution imagery and AI-assisted analysis of their terrain and movements.

Terrestrial borders will no longer protect nations from prying eyes.

An orbiting satellite constellation translates into leverage. The possession of abundant information about another nation gives an adversary a window into how to best target them, and changes the character of warfare.

States without the same degree of space infrastructure can achieve no operational or tactical edge when their every movement is broadcast to their opponent.

The Chinese Communist Party has long practiced civil-military fusion, which seeks to capitalize on the dual-use nature of many technologies and exploit civilian innovation for military gain.

And the Three-Body Constellation is inherently dual-use. While terrain mapping has civilian applications, it also provides insights into other nations’ movements.

Analysts say the planned megaconstellation underscores the issue of the militarization of space and how its effects go far beyond anti-satellite technology and space-based strikes to change the strategic calculus for modern militaries.

China has rapidly expanded its space warfare capabilities in recent years and can can "jam, blind, manipulate, or kinetically destroy satellites," German Minister of Defence Boris Pistorius warned in a September 25 speech.

"In space, there are no borders or continents," he said. "There, Russia and China are our direct neighbors."