Private Chinese rocket reaches orbit for the first time
A private Chinese solid rocket has made its first successful launch, two years after failing its first test flight.
A Kuaizhou 11 rocket lifted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center at 8:15 p.m. EST on Dec. 6 (01:15 a.m. GMT or 9:15 a.m. local time on Wednesday, Dec. 7), sending the VHF Data Exchange System (VDES) test satellite into orbit.
The launch vehicle is operated by Expace, a commercial spin-off of China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation (CASIC), a state-owned defense giant.
Related: The latest news on the Chinese space program
The satellite was then tracked into a sun-synchronous orbit (SSO) of about 463 miles (745 kilometers) by the United States. space forceof the 18th Space Defense Squadron as part of its space awareness activities.
The satellite carries VDES and Automatic Identification System (AIS) payloads for sea-related uses and was developed by CASIC-owned Aerospace Xingyun Technology Co., Ltd., as part of plans for its “Xingyun (opens in a new tab)“constellation.
The Kuaizhou 11 rocket can carry 2,220 pounds (1,000 kilograms) of payload in SSO or up to 3,300 pounds (1,500 kg) in low Earth orbit, making it five times more powerful than the smaller one. Kuaizhou 1A.
The first launch of Kuaizhou 11 was in July 2020 but ended in failure. Expace also underwent a explosion during testing (opens in a new tab) at Jiuquan Spaceport, which may have been a factor in the rocket’s two-year grounding.
The mission was China’s 57th launch in 2022, most of which was carried out by China’s leading space contractor CASC, including a number of assignments to the country’s Tiangong space station.
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