China completes six rocket launches in one week, commercial spaceflight enters high-density phase

Cailian Press, September 20 — Within just one week, China successfully completed six rocket launch missions in succession. The Lijian-1, Gravity-1, Kuaizhou-11, Long March 12, Long March 2D, and Zhuque-2 improved variant rockets collectively delivered more than 30 satellites into their intended orbits, with all launch missions achieving complete success.

Policy Support for Commercial Spaceflight

On the policy front, this week saw typical application cases for commercial spaceflight, covering satellite remote sensing and satellite communications. Commercial spaceflight has been included in the "Challenge-Based Project Selection" track, with individual projects eligible for funding of up to 30 million yuan. Beijing released its "15th Five-Year Plan" for high-end and cutting-edge industries, listing commercial spaceflight as a key focus area. Multiple regions are making comprehensive arrangements ranging from financial support and capacity building to application scenarios, providing institutional backing for the industry's high-density development.

Diverse Satellite Missions

Cailian Press reporters noted that the satellites carried by this week's six launch missions varied in nature, covering multiple dimensions from low-orbit constellation networking to frontier technology verification.

Among them, the "Super Computing Satellite No. 1" carried on CAS Space's Lijian-1 Yao-18 mission serves as the carrier for the nation's first integrated computing satellite project featuring a "first rocket, first satellite," initiating exploration into "computing power going to space."

The dense string of successes across these six missions marks China's entry into a new phase of commercial spaceflight characterized by high-density launches and parallel operations by multiple entities. State-owned teams and private enterprises are simultaneously advancing low-orbit constellation networking, while key technologies such as maritime commercial launches, on-orbit computing, and satellite-ground communications undergo concentrated verification. Commercial spaceflight is shifting from single-point breakthroughs to systematic capability building.

Lijian-1 Yao-18 Successfully Executes "One Rocket, Nine Satellites" Launch

On September 15, the Zhuque-2 improved variant Yao-7 executed a "one rocket, ten satellites" launch, marking the first time a private commercial space enterprise undertook a large-scale satellite internet mission.

At 12:03 PM on September 20, the CAS Space Lijian-1 Yao-18 carrier rocket, carrying the Super Computing Satellite, launched from the Dongfeng Commercial Aerospace Innovation Test Zone. Using a "one rocket, nine satellites" configuration, it precisely placed nine satellites, including "Super Computing Satellite No. 1," into their intended orbits. The launch mission was a complete success. This batch of satellites will primarily be used for space environment monitoring, disaster prevention and mitigation, and scientific experiments.

This mission adopted a multi-satellite launch mode to accelerate the construction of small satellite constellations. Multi-satellite coordinated launches impose strict standards and higher requirements on key technologies such as overall layout matching between satellite and rocket, compatibility and adaptation of payload interfaces, and precise control of multi-satellite separation timing.

Relying on a mature and complete overall design system for multi-satellite launches and high-precision satellite-rocket separation control technology, the Lijian-1 carrier rocket successfully deployed multiple satellites safely, orderly, and precisely into orbit, fully demonstrating the excellent mission adaptability and engineering reliability of this rocket type.

Capital Market Developments

Alongside high-frequency launches, new progress has emerged on the capital side. On September 16, Jianyuan Technology announced the completion of its B++ round of financing, bringing its cumulative total raised over the past six months to over 2.3 billion yuan. According to plans, Jianyuan Technology's Yuanxingzhe-1 rocket will be ready for its maiden flight by the end of 2026, with an orbital launch scheduled at an appropriate time, concurrently conducting first-stage recovery verification. After the maiden flight, the company will transition to subsequent batch deliveries, expecting to launch commercial launch services within 2027.

Space-Based Computing Power to Empower Multiple Sectors

Reporters learned that CAS Space, in partnership with Super Computing (Beijing) Technology Co., Ltd., is using the nation's first "first rocket, first satellite" integrated computing satellite project as a carrier to push computing infrastructure from the ground to vast space, initiating a brand-new exploration of "computing power going to space."

The main payloads of the "Super Computing Satellite No. 1" are a 4-meter visible light camera and an AI computer. The satellite pioneers the exploration of an on-orbit intelligent processing path known as "space sensing, space computing," capable of directly completing image analysis and target recognition in space, transmitting only high-value result information. This technological breakthrough compresses data response times from traditional hours to minutes, constructing a highly timely, fully covered, and highly reliable integrated space-ground computing foundation.

In the future, space-based computing power will broadly empower emergency disaster relief, natural resource supervision, ecological protection, and other sectors.

Beyond computing power going to space, this successful deployment of multiple functionally distinct satellites by Lijian-1 Yao-18 into intended orbits centrally demonstrates the huge potential of aerospace technology empowering thousands of industries.

• Empowering ecological protection and regional development: The "Qinling Satellite 01 and 02," developed under a Shaanxi Province project, will focus on serving ecological protection and high-quality development in regions such as the Qinling Mountains and the Yellow River, providing precise optical remote sensing support for natural resource supervision and emergency disaster relief.
• Empowering communications and frontier technology: The Pengcheng First Star conducts on-orbit verification around 5G-NTN satellite-ground communication, onboard AI computing power, and high-speed laser communication, laying a solid technical foundation for the subsequent construction of the 6G communication network system. Meanwhile, the Diting 01 group of satellites achieves commercial space-based radio frequency data collection, sensing wide-area electromagnetic spectrum situations.

Expert Commentary

According to Ren Jiadong, Deputy Director of the Satellite Overall Technology Department at GalaxySpace, in layman's terms, the Pengcheng First Star can move the core network "brain" of the 5G network, originally deployed in ground server rooms, directly to work in space.

"After the satellite's remote sensing payload captures images, it can use its built-in intelligent computing module to complete target detection and recognition, extract useful information, and convert it into network content. This information is synchronously loaded into the core network via high-speed intra-satellite interfaces. Ground users only need to access the satellite network through Ka-band terminals to view various types of real-time analyzed information from this satellite, just like browsing web pages normally," said Ren Jiadong.

In the future, this satellite will also support multiple 6G frontier technology tests in orbit, promoting the leap of satellite-ground integration from ground networks to integrated air-space-ground systems, injecting strong momentum into the innovative development of China's next-generation communication technology satellite internet.

Sun Liangjie, Deputy Chief Designer of the Lijian-1 carrier rocket, stated that CAS Space will continue to collaborate with partners in AI, biomedicine, and other fields to explore more possibilities for integrating commercial spaceflight with emerging industries, providing solid support for the infrastructure construction of emerging industries such as space-air computing power through high-capacity, high-density, and airline-like launch services.

Production Capacity and Launch Capability

Meng Xiangfu, Deputy Commander of the Lijian-1 carrier rocket, stated that CAS Space maintains its baseline through self-research of core products, focuses on cost reduction through socialized supply chains for general products, and combines this with pulsating industrial assembly to achieve a transformation toward standardized products.

"Accumulating abundant orders on hand, the current annual production capacity of the Lijian-1 carrier rocket reaches 30 units." Meng Xiangfu stated that the Lijian-1 carrier rocket has sufficient order reserves, market demand remains robust, and the launch schedule has been planned through the second half of 2027.

"Airline-like delivery is not a single-point technological breakthrough but the result of CAS Space's joint support from industrial capabilities across the entire chain of R&D, testing, production, and launching," Meng Xiangfu commented.

Regarding production and manufacturing, Meng Xiangfu stated that the rocket production base features a pulsating takt-line production process, with the current annual production capacity of the Lijian-1 carrier rocket reaching 30 units, laying a solid capacity foundation for high-density launch missions.

Regarding launch execution, relying on dedicated launch pads and supporting technical facilities, the launch site measurement and launch cycle has been compressed to within 10 days, significantly improving launch turnaround efficiency.

Reporters learned that while continuously strengthening production and delivery capabilities, CAS Space is accelerating the construction of a dual-track collaborative launch pattern featuring "routine airline-like land launches and mobile specialized sea launches."

Meng Xiangfu revealed that the Lijian-1's first maritime launch is about to depart soon, executing a "one rocket, three satellites" launch mission. Land-sea coordinated launches achieve complementary advantages, broaden task adaptation boundaries, efficiently respond to diverse needs such as constellation networking and rapid replenishment, and provide more flexible and complete space transportation capabilities.

Source: Cailian Press