HELSINKI — China launched a brand new web technology experiment satellite from a sea platform Tuesday, apparently continuing tests for a low Earth orbit megaconstellation.
The Jielong-3 (Smart Dragon-3) solid rocket lifted off from a mobile sea platform from waters off the coast of Yangjiang, Guangdong province, at 2:24 p.m. Eastern (1924 UTC) Dec. 5. Launch success was declared around two hours after liftoff.
The launch confirmed latest solid launch capabilities and longer-range sea launches, providing greater redundancy and suppleness for China’s access to space.
The web test satellite was tracked by U.S. Space Force space domain awareness in a 904 x 922-kilometer altitude orbit inclined by 86 degrees. Details of the payload haven’t been disclosed.
It’s the third Chinese launch this yr which has been carrying satellites described as testing satellite web technologies. The previous missions were a Long March 2D launch from Xichang in November and a launch from Jiuquan in July.
China is planning the development of a national satellite web megaconstellation, named Guowang. The project envisions launching 13,000 satellites into low Earth orbit.
The Jielong-3 is a four-stage rocket that may carry 1,500 kilograms of payload right into a 500-kilometer Sun-synchronous orbit (SSO).
China Rocket Co. Ltd., a industrial spinoff from CALT, a principal launch vehicle manufacturing arm under the state-owned China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), developed the Jielong-3. CASC is China’s principal space contractor.
Jielong-3 has close similarities when it comes to lift capability, length and diameter (2.65 meters), payload fairing (3.35 meters) and mass at liftoff with the ZK-1A rocket. CAS Space, a industrial rocket arm of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, developed the ZK-1A.
The launch comes slightly below a yr after the primary, also from a mobile sea platform. The successful second launch marks the Jielong-3 becoming operational. China Rocket is now seeking to ramp up production.
“The rocket assembly plant in its first phase of construction has an annual production of 10 solid-fuel rockets. After the completion of the second phase by the top of the yr, it is going to have an annual production of 20 such rockets,” Jin Xin, chief director of the Jielong-3, told China Central Television.
Jin also claimed the rocket can carry greater than 20 satellites with a value of not more than US$10,000 per kilogram.
Expanding launch capabilities
The launch also verified longer-range sea platform operations. The platform departed for launch from sea launch facilities near Haiyang within the eastern coastal province of Shandong, on the Yellow Sea. The launch took place within the South China Sea.
The Haiyang spaceport provides China with an alternative choice for accessing space, away from the country’s busy 4 principal spaceports. It also provides flexibility and redundancy.
Long March 11, Jielong-3 and industrial Ceres-1 rockets have thus far launched from Haiyang.
Meanwhile, China is constructing a pair of economic launch pads near the coastal Wenchang space port. First flights are expected next yr. They may support solid and liquid-propellant launch vehicles.
The launch was China’s 56th orbital launch of 2023. It followed a return-to-flight for Galactic Energy and its Ceres-1 solid rocket and the launch of Mirsat-2 distant sensing satellite via a Long March 2C Dec. 4.
CASC appears to have fallen wanting its declared plan to launch greater than 60 times across the yr, but has not suffered a launch failure. 2023 has meanwhile been a breakthrough yr for industrial actors who’ve accounted for 15 orbital launches. This includes the primary successful liquid propellant launches.