In the past few weeks, China has made seven launches of it’s Long March rockets using the new Kuaizhou-1A booster. The launches on Wednesday originated from two separate spaceports in northern China, using the light-class solid-fueled Kuaizhou 1A booster and a liquid-fueled Long March 6 rocket, according to Chinese state media reports, per Space News.
The first launch was a commercial Kuaizhou-1A solid rocket that lifted off from a transporter erector launcher at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China, at 10:40 p.m. Eastern Tuesday.
The Kuaizhou-1A was developed based on missile technology and consists of three solid stages and a liquid-propellant upper stage and is capable of lofting a 200-kilogram (441 pounds) payload into a 700-kilometer (1,543 mile) sun-synchronous orbit (SSO).
According to the government-run, Xinhua news agency, the Kuaizhou 1A rocket carried a commercial Earth observation satellite for Chang Guang Satellite Technology Co. Ltd., a commercial spinoff of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. This was Chang Guang’s 14th Jilin 1 Gaofen 02A satellite to join their remote sensing constellation since 2015.
Less than three hours later, the second launch took place at the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center, Shanxi Province. A long March-6 launch vehicle sent five Ningxia-1 remote sensing satellites into low-Earth orbit at 0635 GMT (1:35 a.m. EST) Wednesday.
This was the first time that the Long March 6 was launched to a low-inclination orbit. In response to the needs of the mission, the rocket went through a series of technical upgrades, including take-off roll, horizontal guidance, new composite material double-walled mount barrel, and other upgrades.
