December 16, 2018 - China Launches Communication Satellite

On December 16, 2018, you're looking at China's launch of Zhongxing-20, a dual-use communications satellite placed into geostationary orbit. It carried Ka-band systems providing encrypted military communications for PLA naval and ground forces, alongside over 30 C-band and 20 Ku-band transponders supporting civilian broadcasting and broadband services. This single mission blended military-grade security with civilian utility on one platform — and it was just one piece of a much larger story unfolding that December.

Key Takeaways

• On December 16, 2018, China launched the Zhongxing-20 communications satellite into geostationary orbit.
• Zhongxing-20 carried a Ka-band payload providing secure encrypted voice, data, and video communications for PLA naval and ground forces.
• The satellite included over 30 C-band and 20 Ku-band transponders supporting civilian broadcasting and broadband for remote communities.
• Zhongxing-20 served state media outlets like CCTV alongside commercial telecom traffic, reflecting its dual military-civilian design.
• The dual-use design blended military and civilian functions, complicating adversary countermeasures, attribution, and resilience assessments.

What Did China Launch on December 16, 2018?

On December 24, 2018, China launched the TJS 3 communications technology test satellite aboard a Long March 3C rocket from the Xichang Space Center, lifting off at 1653 GMT.

You'll note the mission marked the Long March 3C's sixteenth flight, with the rocket featuring two strap-on liquid-fueled engines designed for geostationary orbital insertion missions.

Chinese authorities released limited details about the communications payload, though China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation classified it as a telecommunications mission.

Speculation surrounding potential military applications emerged due to the restricted information.

The launch occurred at 12:53 a.m. Beijing time on December 25, contributing to China's record-breaking 38 missions in 2018.

Xichang Space Center's strategic positioning made it the ideal facility for executing this geostationary orbit mission successfully. Just weeks prior, the same launch facility had served as the departure point for Chang'e 4, a historic mission targeting the far side of the Moon. The massive data systems required to support such missions rely on storage architectures descended from random access architecture pioneered by IBM's RAMAC in 1956, which laid the foundation for the real-time data retrieval used in modern space operations.

That same year, China surpassed the US in total space launches, recording 37 missions compared to the United States' 31, marking the first time China topped the global launch rankings.

The Communication Satellite's Purpose and Target Orbit

With the TJS 3 satellite now in orbit, its purpose and trajectory tell a bigger story about China's communication ambitions.

The satellite's initial placement in geosynchronous transfer orbit marks the starting point for its orbital insertion toward its final destination — geostationary orbit at 35,786 kilometers above Earth.

Once positioned, it'll deliver continuous service coverage across transportation, energy infrastructure, emergency response, and forestry operations.

It also supports 5G expansion and IoT connectivity in underserved regions, filling gaps where fiber optic networks can't reach.

You'll notice it's not just replacing aging systems — it's actively reducing China's dependence on foreign communication networks.

Its multi-band transponders and enhanced encryption make it a versatile, secure backbone for both domestic needs and Belt and Road Initiative connectivity. China continues to advance these efforts through dedicated technology validation missions, as seen with the recent launch carried out by the Long March-5 rocket from Wenchang Space Launch Site. Reflecting the scale of China's broader space ambitions, CASC has planned at least 40 launches for 2021, encompassing everything from commercial satellites to the first module of China's space station. This expanding orbital activity mirrors a broader global shift, as the commercial space station market is projected to reach nearly $12.93 billion by 2030, reflecting how nations and private enterprises alike are racing to establish sustained presence in low Earth orbit.

Long March 8's First-Ever Flight: What the Debut Proved

February 11, 2025, marked a pivotal moment for China's launch vehicle program when the Long March 8's newest variant lifted off from Wenchang Space Launch Site at 5:30 p.m. This first flight delivered the second group of low Earth orbit internet constellation satellites, confirming the rocket's design validation under real mission conditions.

You can see how the 5.2-meter fairing and hydrogen-oxygen upper stage proved payload flexibility, accommodating larger, heavier satellites than earlier configurations allowed. The successful insertion into preset orbit demonstrated mission scalability, showing operators that medium-lift capacity reaching 5,000 kg to 700 km Sun-synchronous orbit is achievable reliably.

As the 559th Long March mission, this debut solidified the variant's role in supporting large-scale constellation networks while reducing future development costs and timelines. The integration of the satellite support structure, adapter frame, and instrument module into a multi-functional module achieved a weight reduction of 200 kilograms, directly contributing to the rocket's improved payload efficiency. The CZ-8A's second stage is powered by 2 × YF-75H engines, which deliver a specific impulse of 442.6 seconds and a maximum thrust of 200 kN, representing a measurable improvement over the baseline variant's upper-stage performance. Much like the early fiber optic deployments of 1977, where field trial data from GTE and AT&T accelerated industry standardization and broader network adoption, this debut mission is expected to inform engineering practices and reduce timelines for subsequent constellation launches.

Why China Launched From Wenchang Instead of Inland Sites

The choice of Wenchang over China's inland sites wasn't arbitrary—it's rooted in hard geography. Sitting at 19° north latitude, Wenchang gives China its strongest equatorial advantage, letting Earth's rotational speed do more of the heavy lifting during launches. That directly cuts fuel consumption and extends a satellite's service life by roughly three years compared to launches from higher-latitude inland sites like Xichang at 28° north.

You'll also notice the difference in coastal logistics. Wenchang's seaport access lets engineers ship heavy rockets like the Long March 5 directly by sea—something no inland site can offer. Jiuquan, Taiyuan, and Xichang sit landlocked in western and northern plateaus, making large payload delivery far harder. For a communication satellite targeting geosynchronous orbit, Wenchang was simply the smarter call. Its low latitude also means a smaller inclination change is required to reach geosynchronous orbit, reducing the energy demands placed on the rocket during ascent.

Wenchang is also China's first coastal launch site, marking a deliberate shift in infrastructure strategy that allows the country to support heavier and more capable rockets for Earth orbit, lunar, and interplanetary missions from a single, strategically positioned facility. This kind of infrastructure planning mirrors how experimental technology programs like Google X pursued broadband connectivity solutions designed to serve remote regions that standard networks simply couldn't reach.

How China's 39 Launches in 2018 Beat the U.S. for the First Time

China pulled ahead of the United States in 2018, notching 39 launches against America's 31 to claim the top spot in global launch rankings for the first time in history. You can trace this milestone back to China's expanding state capacity, which prioritized high-frequency missions across multiple launch sites using the versatile Long March rocket family.

That sustained launch cadence allowed China to break its own national record of 22 launches set in 2016, surpassing it by mid-August. Despite one failure, China finished with a 97% success rate, while the U.S. maintained a perfect 100% across 31 launches. Much like how regulatory gridlock slowed America's commercial cellular rollout compared to Japan and the Nordic countries in the late 1970s, bureaucratic and policy constraints have historically allowed competing nations to seize technological leadership.

Together, both nations accounted for 84% of the world's 114 total launches, underscoring how their competition is reshaping the global space industry. China's Long March missions deployed a wide range of payloads in 2018, including multiple Beidou BD-3 navigation satellites launched in pairs from Xichang launch sites. The overall global launch count of 114 represented a roughly 25% increase over the 91 launches recorded in 2017.

How This Satellite Served Both Military Signals and Civilian Comms

Launched on December 16, 2018, Zhongxing-20 pulled off something few satellites openly advertise: serving both the People's Liberation Army and civilian operators from a single geostationary platform.

Its Ka-band payload handled secure military communications, giving PLA naval and ground forces encrypted voice, data, and video links across the Asia-Pacific.

Meanwhile, its C-band and Ku-band transponders kept civilian broadcasting running, delivering digital TV to China and neighboring regions while supporting broadband for remote communities.

You're looking at over 30 C-band and 20 Ku-band transponders feeding state media like CCTV alongside commercial telecom traffic.

That overlap wasn't accidental. By blending military and civilian functions into one platform, China made countermeasures significantly harder, since disrupting one system risked damaging the other. Canada's Anik A1 had earlier demonstrated that a single geostationary platform could simultaneously manage thousands of telephone circuits and multiple television channels across an entire continent, a capability model that dual-use military-civilian satellites would later exploit. A later satellite in the same series, Zhongxing 2E, was similarly analyzed by outside observers as likely serving mobile communications for the Chinese military despite official descriptions framing it as a standard communications and broadcasting spacecraft.

The dual-use architecture of platforms like Zhongxing-20 takes on additional significance given reports that Iran leveraged a Chinese spy satellite to identify and target U.S. military bases across the Middle East, illustrating how such systems can extend well beyond their stated civilian purposes.

What Else China Launched in December 2018 and Why It Mattered

Zhongxing-20 wasn't China's only big move that December. On December 8, China launched Chang'e-4, achieving the world's first soft landing on the Moon's far side—a historic milestone that positioned China as a leader in lunar exploration.

Then on December 21, a Long March 11 rocket placed the Hongyun-1 satellite into orbit, advancing constellation planning for a 156-satellite broadband network focused on rural connectivity in underserved regions. Hongyun-1 also validated critical antenna testing through its multi-beam millimeter-wave phased array technology.

Meanwhile, December 24 brought the secretive TJS 3 to geostationary orbit, its undisclosed payload hinting at dual-use potential.

Together, these launches helped China hit 38 orbital missions in 2018, though scaling such ambitions still carries significant regulatory challenges ahead. The Long March 11 and Kuaizhou rockets offer added flexibility for rapid deployment, as both are capable of launching from wheeled mobile transporters. The Long March 11, developed by CASC, made its maiden flight on 25 September 2015, demonstrating China's growing investment in solid-propellant rockets designed for short-notice launch capability. In a parallel display of technological ambition that same year, Microsoft's PixelSense platform—which originated from a hacked IKEA coffee table prototype in 2003—demonstrated how iterative hardware development can eventually yield enterprise-ready commercial products.

How China Beat the U.S. in Annual Launch Count for the First Time

For the first time in history, China beat the United States in annual orbital launch count in 2018, completing 39 missions to America's 31. China's expanding industrial capacity and accelerating launch cadence drove this milestone. Here's what made the achievement significant:

1. China's 39 launches represented roughly 34% of all 114 global orbital launches in 2018
2. China's count surged from just 22 launches in 2016, reflecting consistent year-over-year growth
3. Russia, ESA, India, and Japan trailed far behind with 16, 11, 7, and 6 launches respectively

You can trace this dominance directly to China's decade-long investment in its space program.

State-owned enterprises coordinated scheduling efficiently, while Xichang alone contributed 17 launches, demonstrating how concentrated infrastructure supported China's record-breaking output. Across all Long March missions to date, the rocket family has achieved a cumulative success rate of 96.9%, reflecting the reliability that underpins China's ability to sustain such a high launch tempo. Similar to how Canada's 2010 G8 Summit leveraged a decade-long partnership investment across RCMP, Canadian Forces, and regional police to coordinate the largest secured operation in Canadian G8 history, China's launch dominance reflects the power of sustained, coordinated institutional effort.

Among the payloads launched during this period, the Gaofen-12 satellite series served a broad range of applications including land surveys, urban planning, road network design, crop yield estimation, and disaster prevention and mitigation.

How the December 16 Mission Laid the Groundwork for China's Mega-Constellations

When China's Long March 5B lifted off from Hainan island at 5:00 a.m. on December 16, it didn't just deliver 10 satellites—it signaled China's serious entry into the mega-constellation race.

The mission placed Guowang's first spacecraft into a 1,097 x 1,110 km orbit at 86.5 degrees inclination, establishing the foundation for a planned 13,000-satellite network.

You can see this launch as proof that China has mastered the satellite manufacturing scale needed to compete with Starlink's 6,800-plus active satellites.

The YZ-2 upper stage performed flawlessly, confirming China's heavy-lift reliability. However, as Guowang and Qianfan both expand, orbital congestion becomes an unavoidable concern.

More Chinese assets in low Earth orbit mean tighter international coordination will be required moving forward. China Satnet, the government-established operator, was founded in 2021 specifically to manage the Guowang constellation's development and deployment.

China's ambitions in space extend well beyond communications satellites, as demonstrated by the Chang'e-4 mission, which targeted the South Pole–Aitken basin on the Moon's far side to access some of the oldest lunar surface and possible mantle-derived material. Meanwhile, private commercial players like Axiom Space are pursuing parallel paths in low Earth orbit, with their modules designed to use reconfigurable docking ports that allow sequential additions without structural modification, reflecting a modular architecture philosophy that echoes decades of station-building experience.