# Tiansuan Constellation (BUPT): orbital data center program

> China (China), research lab. Stage 6 of 7: Pathfinder constellation. Beijing Review reported 16 LEO satellites and 7 ground stations in September 2026; the first laser-linked Phase 2 satellites launched on 2025-05-17.

- Canonical page: https://spacenexus.us/orbital-data-centers/bupt-tiansuan
- This Markdown version: https://spacenexus.us/orbital-data-centers/bupt-tiansuan.md
- Data as of: 2026-10-05 (last evidence review)
- How the numbers are made: https://spacenexus.us/orbital-data-centers#method

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## Stage evidence

- Beijing Review reported 16 LEO satellites and 7 ground stations in September 2026; the first laser-linked Phase 2 satellites launched on 2025-05-17. Sources: [Tiansuan Constellation](http://www.tiansuan.org.cn/Chinese/new1.html); [Beijing Review](http://www.bjreview.com/Latest_Headlines/202609/t20260901_800445364.html)

## Key figures

- Satellites reported in orbit: 16 satellites. Sources: [Beijing Review](http://www.bjreview.com/Latest_Headlines/202609/t20260901_800445364.html)

## Approach

- Orbit: LEO
- Architecture: University-led open space-ground computing research platform (space servers, 6G, onboard AI)
- Power: Not disclosed
- Cooling: Not disclosed
- Compute: Computing payloads on its own satellites, laser-linked from Phase 2 (reported by the project; not independently verified)
- Customers: Research partners

## Milestones

| Date | Status | Confidence | Milestone | Sources |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 2023-01 | achieved | Reported | First primary satellite BUPT-1 launched | [Beijing Review](http://www.bjreview.com/Latest_Headlines/202609/t20260901_800445364.html) |
| 2025-05-17 | achieved | Reported | BUPT-2 and BUPT-3 launched on Zhuque-2E Y2 (first Phase 2 satellites) | [China Education Online](https://www.eol.cn/news/dongtai/202505/t20250519_2669349.shtml) |
| 2026-09 | achieved | Reported | Reported at 16 LEO satellites and 7 ground stations, over 60 institutions supported | [Beijing Review](http://www.bjreview.com/Latest_Headlines/202609/t20260901_800445364.html) |

## Announced next steps (as the organisation stated them)

- undated: Phase 2: 24 satellites; Phase 3: 300 satellites. Sources: [Tiansuan Constellation](http://www.tiansuan.org.cn/Chinese/new1.html)

## What to watch (SpaceNexus note, not a prediction)

Phase 2 completion.

## Cautions

- Exact dates rest on Chinese secondary reports and the project site.

## People

- Wang Shangguang (BUPT)

## Sources

- [Tiansuan Constellation](http://www.tiansuan.org.cn/Chinese/new1.html)
- [Beijing Review](http://www.bjreview.com/Latest_Headlines/202609/t20260901_800445364.html)
- [China Education Online](https://www.eol.cn/news/dongtai/202505/t20250519_2669349.shtml)

## Licence and credits

- Licence: CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) for the stage, labels and summaries compiled by SpaceNexus. Cite as "Data: SpaceNexus (spacenexus.us)" with a link to https://spacenexus.us/orbital-data-centers/bupt-tiansuan.
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