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Comparing the global ground stations of China and the U.S.

10:49 am

Link here. The article is an excellent review of China’s ground stations located globally, noting how its network is far more limited that the United States, caused by a lack of trust of its intentions by foreign countries.

China currently has access to at least 18 overseas space facilities in Africa, Antarctica, Latin America, South Asia, and the South Pacific. There is no evidence to suggest that any of these countries might expel China’s space tracking and surveillance stations anytime soon. But the longevity of these sites is more precarious than those of the United States. Changing political conditions and concern that these sites may play a role in a conflict involving the United States could undermine China’s ability to maintain key parts of its overseas space tracking network.

The article then notes how China has recently lost stations in Australia, New Zealand, and the Czech Republic and has been forced to field a fleet of ocean-going satellite-tracking ships, similar to what the Soviet Union did during the Cold War.

Genesis cover

On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.

 

The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.


The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
 

"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News

One comment

One comment

  • Edward
    January 14, 2026 at 1:31 pm

    From the article:

    As such, the intense focus on security dynamics in orbit is warranted. But it has obfuscated the critical role that terrestrial infrastructure plays in enabling U.S. and Chinese space operations. Both countries depend on facilities spread across the globe for tracking, commanding, and surveilling satellites as they orbit the earth.

    This may be true for the government space operations, but I suspect that commercial operators are likely to begin using other forms of communications and tracking. SpaceX is already using Starlink on its Starship test flights as well as its Falcon launches. With a little modification of a few Starlink satellites, commercial satellites (Earth orbit or interplanetary) could be connected to orbiting communication satellites, not to ground stations, removing the need to have strategic friendships in awkward locations or awkward friendships in strategic locations. Commercial operators would only need to keep customer-vendor relationships with other commercial companies, and they already know how to do that successfully.

    Similarly, lunar bases and Mars colonies can be connected through the same or similar satellite constellations. I’m not seeing a bright future for ground stations, at least not for commercial space operators.

    Today, the United States retains this infrastructural advantage in great-power space competition. Many of Washington’s allies around the globe permit U.S. space infrastructure on their territories. In contrast, Beijing relies on economic inducements and scientific cooperation to secure access to foreign land because it lacks allies. This strategy has been successful to a degree, allowing China to expand its space infrastructure across the world. But the lessons of the Cold War suggest that relying on non-treaty allies is a tenuous solution.

    On the other hand, the U.S. and Chinese governments may choose the ground station route just to prove that each has the better relationships with other governments. Politics makes for strange bedfellows.

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