Asia: China, Japan and India
How large are Asia's Earth observation programmes, and are they competitors or customers for Western operators?
Chapter summary
China runs the largest government EO fleet (Yaogan, 167 satellites in orbit on Setcoin's catalogue count, plus 36 Gaofen) and the largest commercial optical fleet outside the US, Chang Guang's Jilin-1, which has at least 43 satellites matched by name and reports a much larger total.
Key takeaways
- 1
Chinese operators sell at low prices domestically and to partner countries, but are largely shut out of Western defence markets.
- 2
Japan has two fast-growing SAR companies, iQPS and Synspective, and buys Western capacity; India is building national constellations and private operators such as Pixxel.
- 3
Asia is both a competitor (China) and a growing customer (Japan, India, Gulf and South-East Asia).
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