Chinese Gravity-1 rocket launches new satellites from seaSource: Xinhua Editor: huaxia 2026-07-22 14:23:45
https://english.news.cn/20260722/8138411e0597448d9c99ff40d13abb40/c.htmlChinese Gravity-1 rocket launches new satellites from seaSource: Xinhua Editor: huaxia 2026-07-22 18:02:15
SHANGHAI, July 22 (Xinhua) -- China on Wednesday sent a Gravity-1 carrier rocket into space from waters off the coast of Shanghai in east China, marking a complete success for this flight test mission.
The Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center launched the commercial rocket at 10:54 a.m. (Beijing Time), placing nine satellites into their designated orbits.
This flight marks Gravity-1's first open-sea launch and China's first commercial sea-based launch in the East China Sea off the Yangtze River Delta.
Unrestricted by fixed maritime zones, the mobile launch platform allows for flexible site selection, enhancing launch efficiency and promoting a diversified layout for China's space launch capabilities.
Project officials noted that the mission further verified the adaptability of the rocket model's solid-strap-on configuration to complex sea conditions and its extended standby capability.
Developed by the Chinese commercial aerospace company, OrienSpace, the medium-lift Gravity-1 has a low-Earth-orbit payload capacity of 6.5 tonnes and is capable of delivering a 4.2-tonne payload to a 500-km sun-synchronous orbit, catering to various multi-satellite deployment missions.
The deployed satellites will serve diverse purposes, ranging from all-weather Earth observation and commercial industry services to technical test. ■https://english.news.cn/20260722/b406ccc37e884390b034bf61c7630f28/c.htmlAI-powered Chinese private satellites set 1.5-hour orbital imaging recordSource: Xinhua Editor: huaxia 2026-07-23 21:25:45
BEIJING, July 23 (Xinhua) --
Two optical satellites, Dongpo-13 and Dongpo-14, part of a six-satellite launch developed by MinoSpace and Huantian Wisdom, delivered high-definition remote-sensing images just 1.5 hours after reaching orbit on Wednesday, setting a new speed record for China's private satellite enterprises.
The achievement beats the previous benchmark of under two hours set in May. The faster turnaround highlights growing responsiveness and technology strengths in China's commercial remote-sensing capabilities, said Chang Wujun, deputy general manager of satellite manufacturer MinoSpace.
While the technology supports a wide range of applications from agriculture and forestry to disaster response and urban planning, imaging speed remains a core measure of service value. Traditional systems often take days from tasking to image delivery. For emergencies like floods or landslides, every hour saved can make a critical difference in decision-making.
According to Chang, the company now uses AI-enabled onboard processing to identify targets, flag anomalies, and prioritize data transmission while still in orbit. This bypasses the usual bottleneck of downloading and processing massive raw data on the ground, enabling near-real-time intelligence for disaster monitoring, emergency response, and dynamic surveillance. ■
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