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According to China’s Science and Technology Daily (Kejiribao), China is working on the Tianzhi constellation (天智星座), a satellite network designed to act as a distributed supercomputer cluster in orbit. Rather than a single heavy computing satellite, many smaller satellites are to be linked and pool their processing power into one virtual system in space.
The Tianzhi constellation is part of a broader Chinese spaceflight trend toward satellite-based data processing and software-defined satellites. Software-defined satellites can be reconfigured via software updates after launch instead of being built for fixed tasks. An orbital computing cluster could one day take over tasks where data must be processed where it originates, rather than downlinking it first — for example in Earth observation or communication services.
The project joins other Chinese constellation efforts such as the Qianfan communications network or the Jilin-1 Earth observation constellation. The distributed processing aspect is a particular focus: Onboard computing could reduce latency and handle data volumes too large or too time-critical to transmit to a ground station.
The report does not specify a timeline, satellite count, or technical implementation details for the Tianzhi constellation; it chiefly describes the concept. According to the newspaper, development is still at an early stage.