Guowang (国网, “national network”) is China's state-owned answer to Starlink — a planned ~13,000-satellite mega-constellation operated by China SatNet, with around 190 launched so far. OrbitalNodes tracks every Guowang satellite in real time.
OrbitalNodes' counter shows how many Guowang satellites are above your horizon right now. Guowang flies higher than Starlink, so its passes are slower and fainter — and because deployment is early, the count is still modest but climbing.
China is building two megaconstellations at once. Qianfan (“Thousand Sails”) is the Shanghai-backed commercial one. Guowang (国网, “national network”) is the state one — run by China Satellite Network Group (China SatNet), a state-owned enterprise placed directly under SASAC, the body that oversees China's largest state companies. That placement is a signal: Beijing treats Guowang as national infrastructure, not a commercial venture, with both civilian and military applications.
The plan is enormous — nearly 13,000 satellites across multiple orbital shells, filed with the ITU under the designation “GW”. Roughly 6,000 are planned for Starlink-like altitudes around 500–600 km and around 7,000 higher up near 1,145 km. So far, every satellite launched has gone into the higher orbits, in two shells: one near 1,175 km at 86.5° (near-polar) and one near 1,156 km at 50°. In Western tracking catalogs the satellites appear under names like “HULIANWANG” (“internet”) or “XINGWANG”.
Guowang is the most secretive of the major megaconstellations. China releases almost nothing about the spacecraft — no masses, dimensions or capability figures — so what we know comes largely from tracking the orbits themselves. Deployment began in December 2024 and has run at a steady cadence on Long March 5B, 8A, 12 and 6A rockets. It's early days against Starlink's scale, but as a state-backed program with deep funding and protected domestic spectrum, Guowang is built for the long game.
Guowang is the newest and most secretive megaconstellation, so its live count depends on how quickly newly launched batches are catalogued and how they’re named in tracking data (HULIANWANG / XINGWANG / GW). The overhead count may run slightly behind the very latest launch until new elements are published.
Guowang (国网, “national network”) is China’s state-owned low-Earth-orbit satellite-internet mega-constellation, planned to reach nearly 13,000 satellites and filed with the ITU under the designation “GW”. It’s often called “China’s Starlink”, but that undersells it: it’s a state project run by China Satellite Network Group (China SatNet), built as national infrastructure rather than a commercial product.
It’s best described as dual-use. Guowang is run by a state-owned enterprise, and Chinese state sources have indicated its satellites carry more than broadband — reportedly including laser communications and remote-sensing payloads such as synthetic-aperture radar and optical imaging. Analysts also note the spacecraft appear unusually heavy for pure communications satellites. So while it provides civilian internet, it’s widely understood to have military and intelligence applications as well.
Both are Chinese answers to Starlink, but Guowang is the state-run program (China SatNet, under SASAC) while Qianfan (“Thousand Sails”) is the Shanghai-government-backed, more commercially oriented one. Guowang is planned at ~13,000 satellites and flies higher (around 1,160–1,175 km so far); Qianfan targets ~15,000 and deployed its first satellites nearer 800 km. Guowang is far more secretive about its hardware.
Deployment began in December 2024, and roughly 170–200 satellites were in orbit by mid-2026 — a small fraction of the ~13,000 planned, and China must accelerate sharply to hit its ITU milestones. OrbitalNodes’ live counter shows how many are currently above your horizon; the tracker reflects the catalogued total, which grows month to month.
Guowang is operated by China Satellite Network Group (China SatNet), a central state-owned enterprise created in 2021 and placed directly under SASAC — the body that oversees China’s largest state companies. It consolidated earlier Chinese LEO efforts into a single “national team”. Individual satellites are catalogued internationally under names such as HULIANWANG or XINGWANG.