China's Gravity-1 Rocket Launches New Satellites from Sea

Shanghai (ANTARA) - China launched nine satellites into their designated orbits on Wednesday (16/9) from waters off the coast of Shanghai, China.

The offshore launch mission was carried out by the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Centre.

The satellites, which include a new group from the Qianfan Constellation and one EUHT technology test satellite, were launched at 06:00 Beijing Time (05:00 WIB) using the Gravity-1 Y3 carrier rocket. The mission was declared a complete success.

According to the Chinese commercial aerospace company OrienSpace, the developer of the rocket, the mission set a new record for a single Chinese sea-based launch in terms of payload weight and orbital altitude, with a net payload weight of over 3 tonnes and an insertion altitude of approximately 800 kilometres.

This achievement verifies the adaptability of the sea-based launch model for missions involving medium and large-sized satellite payloads.

To date, the Gravity-1 rocket has conducted four sea-based launches, all of which have been successful. Today’s mission marks the first Gravity-1 launch intended to form a large satellite internet constellation network in Low Earth Orbit (LEO).

According to OrienSpace, the satellites carried by the rocket were produced in Shanghai and launched from the waters near Shanghai.

Such land-sea coordination helps to improve the overall efficiency of production and launch operations for commercial spacecraft.