A modified version of China's Long March 8 carrier rocket transported 22 satellites into orbit on Sunday morning in its debut flight, setting a record for the most satellites launched by a single Chinese rocket.
The rocket blasted off at 11:06am from a coastal launch tower at the Wenchang Space Launch Center in Southern China's Hainan province and flew more than 15 minutes before deploying all of the 22 small satellites, which were built by seven institutes and private companies, according to a statement from the China National Space Administration, the organizer of the launch mission.
Most of the launched satellites are tasked with conducting remote-sensing operations with their optical instruments.
The major user of the rocket is Changguang Satellite Technology, a State-owned enterprise in Northeast China's Jilin province, as it manufactured and will operate 10 satellites.
Before the mission, the domestic record for the most satellites launched by a single rocket was held by the first flight of the Long March 6 model in September 2015, which deployed 20 satellites. The world record is held by SpaceX's Falcon 9, which lifted 143 satellites in January last year.
Like the original Long March 8 model, the latest variant is 50.3 meters long and has a diameter of 3.35 meters. It is propelled by four engines-two on the first stage and two on the second – and has a liftoff weight of nearly 198 metric tons. The rocket is capable of transporting satellites with a combined weight of 3 tons to sun-synchronous orbits, according to China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp, a leading State-owned space contractor that made the rocket.
Long March 8's original model performed its debut mission in December 2020 at the Wenchang center. Sunday's mission was the second flight of the Long March 8 series.
Chen Xiaofei, one of the rocket's head designers from the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology in Beijing, said the major difference between the modified variant and the original Long March 8 is that the new model doesn't have side boosters. Its fairing is also shorter than that of the original type, he added.
Earlier on Sunday, a Long March 4C rocket was launched at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern China's Gobi Desert to deploy an Earth-observation radar satellite.
The Land Surveyor 1-01B satellite soon entered a quasi-sun-synchronous orbit about 607 kilometers above the ground and will team up with its predecessor -- Land Surveyor 1-01A that was launched on Jan 26 – to use their L-band synthetic aperture radars to carry out round-the-clock, all-weather observation of ground areas.
The two-satellite system is tasked with providing data and images to land resources, disaster prevention and relief, mapping, and forestry authorities and will extensively strengthen the rapid response capability for major natural disasters, according to the space administration.