From left: Racy Tsai, VP of Business Development and Sales of Shanghai Spacesail Technologies; Dr. Jason Zheng, President of Shanghai Spacesail Technologies; Yau Chyong Lim, COO of Measat; and Dr. Edmund Kong, CTO of Measat. Photo: Measat

Malaysian satellite operator Measat has signed an MoU with the Chinese company operating the Spacesail Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) constellation, which could see Measat use the constellation to complement its Geostationary Orbit (GEO) fleet. Measat announced the deal with Shanghai Spacesail Technologies, formerly known as Shanghai Spacecom Satellite Technology, on Thursday. 

This MoU opens the door to jointly marketing services and joint R&D. Specifically, the MoU covers potential collaboration in a number of areas including LEO broadband services, direct-to-device communications, satellite IoT, and Earth observation services in Measat’s markets. The companies also plan to conduct a joint rain fade study on Q/V-band high frequency transmission.

The Spacesail constellation is known as Qianfan in Chinese, and is also referred to as Thousands Sails, or G60. It aims to be a Chinese competitor to Starlink and has government funding from the Shanghai municipal government. It now has 72 satellites in orbit with plans to reach 15,000, and most recently launched a batch of satellites in January.

Measat COO Yau Chyong Lim said in a press release the company is pursuing a multi-orbit approach with this collaboration. 

“We firmly believe in a multi-orbit satellite network to achieve progress in society and are pleased to have the opportunity to integrate the capabilities of Spacesail’s Thousand Sails megaconstellation with Measat’s fleet of Geostationary Orbit satellites. In regions where Measat operates, satellites have immense potential in further bridging the digital divide and overcoming geographical challenges,” Lim said.