China launches six satellites
China yesterday placed six satellites into orbit, its solid-fueled Kinetica-1 rocket lifting off from the Jiuquan spaceport in northwest China.
China claims this was a commercial launch, taking place from the launch facility at Jiuquan dedicated to commercial launches, but the rocket was built by CAS Space, a division of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. It is also solid-fueled, which means it is likely derived from missile technology, something that the Chinese government will supervise quite closely.
No word on where the rocket’s lower stages crashed inside China.
The leaders in the 2025 launch race:
60 SpaceX
30 China
6 Rocket Lab
5 Russia
SpaceX still leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 60 to 48.
China yesterday placed six satellites into orbit, its solid-fueled Kinetica-1 rocket lifting off from the Jiuquan spaceport in northwest China.
China claims this was a commercial launch, taking place from the launch facility at Jiuquan dedicated to commercial launches, but the rocket was built by CAS Space, a division of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. It is also solid-fueled, which means it is likely derived from missile technology, something that the Chinese government will supervise quite closely.
No word on where the rocket’s lower stages crashed inside China.
The leaders in the 2025 launch race:
60 SpaceX
30 China
6 Rocket Lab
5 Russia
SpaceX still leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 60 to 48.