China invests $3 billion in a supercomputing Centre; seeks to become a space superpower

In the upcoming decade, China envisions massive constellations of commercial satellites that can provide services extending from high-speed internet for aircrafts to tracking coal shipments. According to state media on Tuesday, the southern spaceport of Wenchang in China will build a $3 billion supercomputing Centre by year-end to examine the data obtained from space.

With a planned and structured investment of 20 billion yuan ($3.1 billion), the supercomputing Centre of China will provide huge data services for industries including the aerospace and marine sectors starting in 2022, state-backed Hainan Daily said. China at present has four launch sites – three inland and one in Wenchang. But to comply with the requirements for satellite launches, China will have to build substantially larger rockets that can carry more satellites or build more launch sites or both. The government of China aims to build the country’s fifth rocket launch site as they support Hainan in its international cooperation on launching commercial satellites and payloads along with its Research and Development in commercial spaceflight.

Not many countries have the potential to launch their payloads into space since space technology embodies the pinnacle of technological achievement, but a handful of countries have established their ability to conduct activities in space known as the ‘spacefaring nations’, and China features among this elite group.