A rocket carrying China's first ever quantum satellite shot upward from Inner Mongolia on Tuesday (GMT +8), Aug. 16, propelling the country's goal of pioneering the first quantum communications network in outer space.
The 1,400-plus-pound Quantum Experiments at Space Scale (QUESS) satellite roared from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center into the sky aboard a Long March-2D rocket at 1:40 local time.
QUESS Chief Scientist Pan Jianwei says that from a follower in classic information technology (IT) development, China is now at the forefront, guiding achievements in the future.
"The newly-launched satellite marks a transition in China's role," says Jianwei.
The satellite will move around Earth once every 90 minutes after it gets into a sun-synchronous orbit at an altitude of 500 kilometers (310 miles), officials said.
Quantum Communications Space Race
In late May, China announced plans to launch its first quantum satellite into space and obtain a highly coveted asset against cyberespionage: hack-proof communications. Tuesday's early launch is just the beginning of the country's strategy to surpass the West in this challenging scientific field.
Quantum physicist Nicolas Gisin, a professor from University of Geneva, says it is very likely that China will win the race to produce a quantum satellite.
"It shows again China's ability to commit to large and ambitious projects," Gisin tells The Wall Street Journal.
Indeed, the quantum communication race has been going on for the last two decades since the initial demonstration of the quantum key distribution link under Lake Geneva in the 1990s, says Professor Alexander Sergienko of Boston University.
What's more, although scientists from Europe, Japan and the United States are scrambling to take advantage of the powerful properties of subatomic particles, only few of them have as much state support as Chinese researchers. In fact, quantum technology is a chief strategic focus in China's economic development plan for five years.
It hasn't been disclosed how much Beijing allocated to quantum research or in building the QUESS satellite, but basic research funding was estimated to be at $101 billion in 2015, reports say.
QUESS Satellite
During its two-year mission, QUESS will establish hack-proof communications by sending uncrackable keys from outer space to Earth.
The satellite, which earned the nickname "Micius" after a fifth century Chinese scientist and philosopher, will also provide insights into quantum entanglement — one of the strangest phenomena in quantum physics.
Quantum communications is a much-coveted technology and ensures ultra-high security because a quantum photon can neither be duplicated nor separated. Hence, it is impossible to intercept, wiretap or crack the data sent transmitted through it.
Meanwhile, Chinese scientists will test the quantum key distribution between satellite and ground stations and perform quantum communications between Beijing and Xinjiang's Urumqi.
The QUESS satellite will also transmit entangled photons to two Earth stations that are 1,200 kilometers (745 miles) away from one another, in the hopes of testing quantum entanglement over a greater distance.
