Chinese business rocket firm launches 26 satellites, sets national record

HELSINKI — A Chinese business launch firm conducted its second orbital mission Wednesday, sending a reported record 26 satellites into orbit.

The second Lijian-1 solid rocket developed by CAS Space lifted off from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center within the Gobi Desert at 12:10 a.m. Eastern June 7. 

Aboard were the Shiyan-24A and Shiyan-24B experimental satellites. The opposite payloads were described as technological demonstrations and business remote-sensing by Chinese state media reports.

The 26 payloads aboard the flight surpass the previous national record of twenty-two satellites launched by the much larger Long March 8 rocket in February 2022.

Shiyan series satellites are sometimes classified and understood for use to check recent technologies and payloads for Chinese space systems. These are frequently developed and launched by CASC, China’s predominant, state-owned space contractor. The June 7 launch indicates CAS Space was awarded a contract for national and defense launches, whereas the overwhelming majority of economic Chinese launches carry business payloads. 

Other payloads known to be on the flight included Xi’an Hangtou-8 for Xi’an Aerospace Investment, and Xingshidai-16 and Tianyi-26 for business satellite firms ADA Space and Spacety respectively. Also aboard was Fucheng-1, an interferometric imaging synthetic aperture radar (SAR) distant sensing satellite for the six-satellite Mianyang constellation.

CAS Space, sometimes known as Zhongke Aerospace, is a business spinoff from the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). The firm has plans for a series of solid and reusable liquid propellant rockets for launch services and space tourism. 

The corporate announced in April that it had secured $87 million in C round funding. The predominant backers were investment vehicles linked to CAS.

The Wednesday mission was the second launch of the Lijian-1, just below a 12 months after the primary, in July 2022. The rocket has a take-off weight of 135 tons, a complete length of 30 meters, a core stage diameter of two.65 meters, a fairing diameter of two.65 meters and might carry 1,500 kilogram of payload right into a 500-kilometer sun-synchronous orbit, in response to the Chinese Academy of Sciences. A recent presentation revealed that the Lijian-1 uses SP70 solid rocket motors from CASC.

The second Lijian-1 rocket, also often known as ZK-1A or Kinetica-1, was the primary produced at recent facilities in Nansha District within the southern city of Guangzhou. Shikong Tansuo, an area arm of automaker Geely Technology Group, has also settled in Nansha, following a 2021 move by the local government to draw space corporations in any respect stages of the provision chain to the world.

Lijian-1 was briefly the most important operational solid launch vehicle in China until the ocean launch of the Jielong-3 in December last 12 months. CAS earlier this 12 months tested vertical rocket landings with a jet-powered prototype as a part of efforts to develop reusable rockets. The launch was China’s twenty second orbital mission overall in 2023. CASC plans greater than 60 launches this 12 months, while business actors could add an extra 20 or more orbital missions, in response to announced plans.