Chinese private space company LandSpace, which builds rockets and launches satellites, sent its Zhuque-2E Y7 rocket into space on September 15 with 10 satellites for the Spacesail network. According to the Xinhua news agency, it was the first time a rocket from a private Chinese company has delivered satellites for a large Chinese internet constellation.
The Zhuque-2E lifted off at 2:26 p.m. Beijing time from the Dongfeng commercial space innovation pilot zone, near the Jiuquan launch center in northwest China. All ten satellites reached their planned orbits, and the mission was declared a complete success. China Daily counts it as China’s 65th space mission this year and the sixth flight of the Zhuque-2E.
Spacesail, also known as Qianfan, is run by the state-owned company Shanghai Spacesail Technologies. This was the constellation’s 15th batch, bringing the number of its satellites in orbit to 248. In early July, after China launched another batch on a Long March-8A rocket, the count stood at 238. The network is eventually expected to reach 12,000 satellites.
China began building out the constellation in August 2024. Its satellites operate in low Earth orbit and use the Ku, Q, and V bands. They are designed to provide broadband internet access and data transmission.
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The Zhuque-2E itself is a two-stage launch vehicle powered by liquid oxygen and methane. It stands 47.3 meters tall and 3.35 meters wide, weighs 219 metric tons at liftoff, and produces 282 tons of thrust at launch. The rocket can carry satellites weighing up to 4 metric tons in total to a typical Sun-synchronous orbit about 500 kilometers above Earth.
