The Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center carried out the launch mission. The satellites, a new group of Qianfan Constellation satellites and an EUHT technology test satellite, lifted off at 6 a. m. (Beijing Time) atop a Gravity-1 Y3 carrier rocket. The mission was declared a complete success.

The mission set new records for China’s single sea launch in terms of payload weight and orbital altitude, with a net payload weight of over three tonnes and an insertion altitude of about 800 kilometers, verifying the sea launch model’s adaptability to medium- and large-sized satellite payload missions, according to the Chinese commercial aerospace company OrienSpace, the developer of the rocket.

The Gravity-1 rocket has carried out four sea launches so far, all of which were successful. Today’s mission marked Gravity-1’s first launch for the networking of a large low-Earth-orbit satellite internet constellation.

According to OrienSpace, the satellites aboard the rocket were manufactured in Shanghai and launched from waters near Shanghai. Such land-sea coordination helps improve the overall efficiency of both commercial space manufacturing and launch operations.