China Launches Nine Satellites from Sea, Sets New Records for Payload and Orbital Altitude

Dragon Media News Desk

China successfully launched nine satellites into preset orbits on Wednesday from waters off the coast of Shanghai in east China. The mission was carried out by the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center, with a new group of Qianfan Constellation satellites and an EUHT technology test satellite lifting off at 6 a.m. Beijing Time aboard a Gravity-1 Y3 carrier rocket.

According to Chinese commercial aerospace company OrienSpace, the mission set new records for a single sea launch in China in terms of both payload weight and orbital altitude. The rocket carried a net payload of more than three tonnes to an insertion altitude of about 800 kilometres.

OrienSpace said the mission demonstrated the adaptability of the sea-launch model for medium- and large-sized satellite payload missions. The Gravity-1 rocket has now completed four sea launches, all of them successfully.

Wednesday’s mission also marked the first time Gravity-1 had been used for the networking of a large low-Earth-orbit satellite internet constellation. The Qianfan Constellation is one of China’s major low-Earth-orbit satellite internet projects.

According to OrienSpace, the satellites carried by the rocket were manufactured in Shanghai and launched from nearby waters. This land-sea coordination is expected to improve the overall efficiency of commercial satellite manufacturing and launch operations.

China has been rapidly expanding its commercial space sector, including low-Earth-orbit communications satellites, reusable launch technologies and sea-launch capabilities. The latest mission indicates that China’s sea-launch system is increasingly capable of handling heavier payloads and higher orbital requirements.