HELSINKI — A lightweight-lift solid rocket sent an experimental “plate-like” stackable satellite into orbit late Thursday because the country looks to construct its answer to Starlink.
A Kuaizhou-1A solid rocket lifted off from a TEL into blue skies above the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center within the Gobi Desert at 10:35 p.m. June 8. The China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation (CASIC) confirmed launch success a short while later.
Aboard the flight was the Longjiang-3 experimental stackable communications satellite, jointly developed by a business satellite company and its parent entity, the Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT), in Northeast China.
The Harbin Institute of Technology Satellite Technology Co., Ltd., or HITSat, said in a statement that Longjiang-3 will test communication technologies including signal regeneration and network slicing, and supply technical support for China’s satellite Web construction.
HITSat was established in December 2020 and is developing a variety of small satellite platforms. The SATware-CS200 Ka-band satellite platform, on which Longjiang-3 relies, is able to downlink speeds of 600 Mbps and 500 Mbps uplink. The platform has a mass of 120 kilograms with 40 kilograms of payload available. It has a design lifetime of five years and uses electric propulsion.
A render from HITSat indicates Longjiang-3 to be a flat panel design with a single, foldable solar array. The platform is designed for mass production, automatic assembly and stacked launches, in response to HITSat. The configuration makes it just like SpaceX Starlink satellites.
HITSat can also be developing other platforms specialized for hosting distant sensing and artificial aperture radar payloads. A 2021 Chinese language article stated that HITSat has secured dozens of business satellite contracts.
China is currently developing plans to construct its own low Earth orbit satellite megaconstellation that might provide its own answer to Starlink. It would supply satellite web infrastructure for China and potentially rival Starlink and other systems, while also positioning China as a provider of world infrastructure.
Referred to as “Guowang,” or national network, the constellation is anticipated to eventually consist of 13,000 satellites, in response to filings with the ITU. It just isn’t known if HITSat will likely be involved within the project.
CASC subsidiary CAST and Microsat under the Chinese Academy of Sciences are understood to be contracted to fabricate satellites for Guowang. Meanwhile, private firm GalaxySpace is anticipated to launch its first flat panel satellites with flexible solar arrays within the second half of 2023. The country has in recent times greatly increased its small sat production capabilities.
China is at the identical time trying to boost its launch capability to get its Guowang satellites into orbit. Measures being taken include adapting the Long March 5B to make use of an upper stage to insert quite a few satellites into orbit, ramping up production of the expendable Long March 8, and possibly leveraging the emerging business launch sector.
The Kuaizhou-1A used for the Longjiang-3 launch consists of three solid stages and a liquid propellant upper stage. It’s able to carrying 200 kilograms of payload right into a 700-kilometer sun-synchronous orbit (SSO).
Thursday’s launch was the twentieth of the Kuaizhou-1A. The mission suffered a roughly 11-week delay after a late March launch attempt was scrubbed.
Expace, which operates Kuaizhou solid rockets for state-owned defense giant CASIC and its business space projects, is planning a complete of seven launches of its Kuaizhou-1A and bigger Kuaizhou-11 rockets. Each vehicles had successful comebacks last yr following failures.
Business space firms Galactic Energy and iSpace have also launched solid rockets in the identical class this yr, with more planned. Overall, China’s business players could launch greater than 20 times this yr.HIT previously developed the Longjiang-1 and a pair of small satellites that piggybacked on the launch of the Queqiao lunar relay satellite to support the Chang’e-4 lunar far side landing mission. The Longjiang satellite name comes from Heilongjiang (“Black Dragon river”), also often called the Amur river, which runs through the Chinese province of the identical name, and of which Harbin is the capital.