This paper proposes a Quasi-physical algorithm based on action space (QPAS) for an NP-hard global optimization problem-the circle packing problem with equilibrium constraints (CPPEC). The algorithm has important applications for the layout design of the satellite modules. A key issue in designing a good basin hopping strategy for CPPEC is how to find the most vacant areas such that the searching procedure can jump from a local minimum basin to a promising area. By borrowing the concept of "action space" proposed for the rectangular packing problem, the new algorithm approximates each circle as a rectangle and the irregular vacant areas are viewed approximately as regular rectangular areas. Consequently the most vacant areas can be found efficiently and accurately. In addition, three quasi-human strategies, namely early termination, coarse-to-fine and adaptive step length, are combined with the quasi-physical approach to speed up the potential energy descending process. Experiments are performed on 13 benchmark instances, and computational results demonstrate the high efficiency of the proposed approach. QPAS achieves the first or the second best results on most instances compared with other algorithms, and in some configurations, it has smaller container radius than the current best results. Meanwhile, QPAS obtains very small equilibrium deviations.