Alibaba reaching for the stars with Singles Day satellite

Alibaba Group has taken a fresh step into space with the launch of what it calls a mini space station and the planned launch of a communication satellite, as the e-commerce giant gears up for its annual shopping festival on Nov 11 and eyes frontier technologies.

Dubbed "Candy Tin", the mini space station, which was launched on Thursday from Taiyuan, Shanxi province, has been positioned in orbit and is powered by Commsat Technology Development Co, a Beijing-based small satellite constellation operator. The Tmall Global communication satellite, meanwhile, is scheduled for launch just days ahead of the Nov 11 shopping extravaganza, known as Singles Day.

The launches commemorate the 10th such 24-hour e-commerce spending spree, which was first held by Alibaba in 2009, and also mark 10 years since the first Chinese astronaut walked in space, said Jing Jie, president of Alibaba's Tmall shopping site.