China has launched five remote observation satellites into space

China on January 23 launched a commercial launch vehicle Lijian-1 Y3 with five Earth remote sensing satellites. This was reported by Xinhua.

It was noted that the rocket with the spacecraft on board was launched from the Jiuquan Cosmodrome in the Gobi Desert in northwest China at 12.03 local time (6.03 Kyiv time) and successfully launched all the satellites into the planned orbits.

It was previously reported that CAS SPACE completed the testing of the Lijian-1 Y3 rocket and delivered it to the launch site for the launch of five satellites of the Taijing family of Chinese MinoSpace. These spacecraft weigh 240-350 kg and are designed for radar and optical observation of the earth’s surface.

The Lijian-1 (Kinetica-1) rocket is the first lightweight four-stage solid propellant rocket developed by CAS Space, a commercial arm of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). Its height is 30 m, diameter is 2.65 m, weight is 149 tons. The rocket is capable of lifting up to 2000 kg of payload into low-Earth orbit. The first flight of Lijian-1 took place on July 27, 2022, when the rocket launched six satellites into space. The current launch is the third mission of the Lijian-1 series of launch vehicles and the 16th orbital launch in China since the beginning of the year.

Recall that China has launched three scientific satellites into space.

It was also reported that the Chinese private aerospace company Orienspace on January 11 launched its own Gravity-1 launch vehicle into space for the first time, which is called “the most powerful solid-propellant rocket in the world.”