In less than two days, China transformed into something resembling an open space launch workshop, as four different rockets successfully delivered their payloads into orbit within about 45 hours, launching from three widely separated locations, in a series that revealed the expansion of the country’s space launch capabilities and the growing presence of commercial companies alongside government institutions.
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The incident is important to the reader because it relates not only to the number of missiles, but also to the speed of mission execution, the diversity of vehicles, operators, and orbital targets.
The origins of this path date back to decades of Chinese reliance on a state-led space program, before private companies began entering the satellite launch market and developing their own rockets.
The company confirmed that the mission was the ninth flight of the Chuchuan-2 family, and the first to use the rocket to carry out a large-scale mission to build a constellation of internet satellites.
19 satellites for internet services in two missions
About 15 and a half hours later, it was the turn of the Orion Space "Gravity-1" rocket, which launched from a sea platform off the coast of Shanghai.
The rocket carried nine more satellites into low Earth orbit, joining the Qianfan constellation, or "thousand sails," which China eventually plans to include about 15,000 satellites to provide broadband internet services.
Thus, the two special missions became responsible for placing 19 satellites within the same constellation in a short period of time, which illustrates the trend towards frequent launches to serve large satellite projects.
From private companies to government missiles
The launch series did not stop at the commercial sector. At 03:32 AM on September 17, Mecca time, the Long March 12 rocket launched from the Wenchang Space Launch Center on Hainan Island, carrying 9 satellites for another Chinese internet constellation known as SatNet, which aims to have about 13,000 satellites when completed.
This rocket is operated by the state-owned space industry giant, the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation.
Thus, the series combined commercial and government missiles, land and sea sites, and communications and ground surveillance missions.
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