{"id":538020,"date":"2026-07-22T04:52:17","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T04:52:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/538020\/"},"modified":"2026-07-22T04:52:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T04:52:17","slug":"chinas-unique-high-orbit-satellite-is-using-a-rare-metal-the-us-struggles-to-obtain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/538020\/","title":{"rendered":"China\u2019s unique high-orbit satellite is using a rare metal the US struggles to obtain"},"content":{"rendered":"

A satellite that can provide 24\/7 surveillance of a third of the Earth\u2019s surface relies on a rare mineral whose global supply is dominated by China, a new study has disclosed.<\/p>\n

It orbits 36,000km (22,000 miles) above the Earth and is able to stay in what is known as a geosynchronous orbit, which keeps it fixed over the same spot.<\/p>\n

This allows it to monitor both large areas of the planet and moving targets \u2013 something the United States has spent decades trying to achieve without success.<\/p>\n

China has near-total dominance of the global supply of GaN<\/a> \u2013 a key component in active electronically scanned array radars, electronic warfare systems and next-generation defence platforms \u2013 and has restricted gallium exports since the satellite launched in August 2023.<\/p>\n

China restricts critical metal exports following Western semiconductor curbs in latest trade war<\/p>\n

The metal is mainly extracted as a by-product of alumina production rather than mined independently and China, the world\u2019s largest aluminium producer, accounts for more than 95 per cent of global primary gallium production.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A satellite that can provide 24\/7 surveillance of a third of the Earth\u2019s surface relies on a rare…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":538021,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[264890,25433,264893,264894,264891,111,139,69,4029,5881,145,264892],"class_list":["post-538020","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-gallium-nitride","tag-geosynchronous-orbit","tag-journal-of-microwaves","tag-ludi-tance-01-radar-satellite","tag-national-key-laboratory-of-space-microwave-communication","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-satellite","tag-synthetic-aperture-radar","tag-technology","tag-xian-institute-of-space-radio-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538020","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=538020"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538020\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/538021"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=538020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=538020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=538020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}