China launches world's first 'hack-proof' quantum satellite

(Image credit: China Photos/Getty Images)

last updated 16 August 2016

On Tuesday, China launched the world's first quantum satellite, designed "to establish 'hack-proof' quantum communications," the official Xinhua news agency announced.

During its two year mission, the Quantum Experiments at Space Scale satellite will "transmit uncrackable keys from space to the ground," Xinhua reports. "Quantum communication boasts ultra-high security as a quantum photon can neither be separated nor duplicated. It is hence impossible to wiretap, intercept, or crack the information transmitted through it."

China says it needs to have secure communications between Beijing and Urumqi, the capital of the Xinjiang region, because the government is going up against an Islamist insurgency in the area, Reuters reports.

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.