[7] The government of Shanghai raised 6.7 billion Chinese Yuan ($943 million) in funds for the construction of the project, which was initially dubbed the G60 Starlink.
[9][10] On 15 October 2024 at 11:06 UTC, a Long March 6A rocket launched the second group of eighteen Qianfan satellites into a polar orbit.
[11] On 5 December 2024 at 04:41 UTC, a third group of eighteen Qianfan satellites were launched into a polar orbit by a Long March 6A rocket.
[6] The People's Liberation Army expressed intentions of potentially using the megaconstellation for military uses akin to Starlink's utility for Ukrainian Armed Forces communications while fighting against Russia during the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
At their current luminosity the spacecraft will leave streaks in photographic research images that cannot be removed by software.