China Launches 10 Satellites Aboard Zhuque-2E Rocket

Dragon Media Newsroom

China launched a Zhuque-2E Y4 rocket from the Dongfeng Commercial Space Innovation Pilot Zone in northwest China on Wednesday, placing 10 satellites into their designated orbits. The rocket lifted off at 7:40 p.m. Beijing time, and the flight test was declared a success, Xinhua reported.

Eight of the satellites belong to the second group of ADAspace Technology’s “Star Compute” programme. Designed to operate in dawn-to-dusk orbits, they carry high-performance computing equipment, laser communication systems for links between satellites and between satellites and ground stations, and low-light cameras.

The company said the satellites will test several technologies in orbit, including 10,000-watt liquid-cooling loops, large deployable radiative-cooling wings, a full-domain laser communication network and the in-orbit training of foundational artificial intelligence models.

ADAspace plans to use the tests to refine the technology and advance space-computing systems. Its “Star Compute” programme aims to build artificial intelligence infrastructure in space using 2,800 computing satellites. The first group was launched in May 2025, and the third group is scheduled for deployment in 2026.