LINE

Text:AAAPrint
Sci-tech

Smart Dragon 3 rocket successfully completes third space launch

2024-02-03 20:11:27China Daily Editor : Mo Honge ECNS App Download
China launched a Smart Dragon 3 carrier rocket on Saturday morning off the coast of Yangjiang in Guangdong province, placing nine satellites in space. (Photo by Chen Xiaolong for China Daily)

China launched a Smart Dragon 3 carrier rocket on Saturday morning off the coast of Yangjiang in Guangdong province, placing nine satellites in space. (Photo by Chen Xiaolong for China Daily)

China launched a Smart Dragon 3 carrier rocket on Saturday morning off the coast of Yangjiang in Guangdong province, placing nine satellites in space.

The rocket blasted off at 11:07 am from a launch service ship, thundering up into cloudy skies.

After a short flight, the vehicle deployed the satellites into their preset orbital positions, marking the success of the launch mission, China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology, maker of the Smart Dragon 3 series, announced soon after the liftoff.

This has been the third space launch conducted from the South China Sea. It is also the first time the Smart Dragon 3 model to has launched a foreign satellite — one of the nine satellites, NExSat-1, is an experimental spacecraft built by Egypt's National Authority for Remote Sensing and Space Sciences, and Germany's Berlin Space Technologies.

The Smart Dragon 3 is a solid-propellant rocket model. The type is 31 meters tall, has a diameter of 2.65 meters and can carry a liftoff weight of 140 metric tons. It is mainly propelled by a high-performance, solid-propellant engine, which holds 71 tons of propellant that creates a thrust of 200 tons.

The rocket is capable of sending multiple satellites with a combined weight of 1.5 tons to a typical sun-synchronous orbit at an altitude of 500 kilometers.

Smart Dragon 3 made its maiden flight in December 2022 from a ship in the Yellow Sea, placing 14 satellites into orbit. Its second mission took place in December 2023 off Yangjiang, becoming the first sea-based rocket launch from the South China Sea.

The Smart Dragon 3 is suitable for clients who wish to quickly launch large numbers of satellites to establish space-based commercial networks as soon as possible, according to Jin Xin, the rocket's project manager.

By now, China has performed 10 sea-based launches — five by the Long March 11 rocket model, three by the Smart Dragon 3, one by the Ceres 1 rocket of the Beijing-based private company Galactic Energy and another one by the Gravity 1 of Orienspace, another private company in Beijing. Seven of those took place in the Yellow Sea while three in the South China Sea.

Related news

MorePhoto

Most popular in 24h

MoreTop news

MoreVideo

LINE
Back to top About Us | Jobs | Contact Us | Privacy Policy
Copyright ©1999-2024 Chinanews.com. All rights reserved.
Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.
[网上传播视听节目许可证(0106168)] [京ICP证040655号]
[京公网安备 11010202009201号] [京ICP备05004340号-1]