Jilin group sets goal of putting 60 satellites in orbit by 2020

A private company in Jilin province - Chang Guang Satellite Technology Co - aims to launch 60 satellites into orbit by 2020. This is part of the province's push to renovate its manufacturing industry and transform itself into an aerospace technology hub.

The ambitious plan follows the northeastern province building the country's first domestically developed commercial Earth imaging satellite in 2015. The satellite was developed by Chang Guang, a commercial spinoff of the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics and Physics.

In January 2017, a new commercial satellite developed by the company was launched to help monitor the province's sprawling forests, partly to prevent fires. This brought the number of satellites manufactured and launched by the company to five.