A Long March-12 rocket lifted off on September 17 from a commercial launch site in the southern province of Hainan, carrying the 25th group of satellites for SatNet, China’s state-run internet constellation. The launch put the payload into its planned low Earth orbit, the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) said.
CASC did not say how many satellites were on board. According to SpaceLaunchSchedule, the rocket delivered nine of them.
This was the eighth flight of the Long March-12 (CZ-12) and its fourth this year. Across the whole Long March family, it was mission number 667. The rocket runs on liquid propellant, stands 62 meters tall and comes with a fairing 4.2 or 5.2 meters wide. It can lift at least 12 tonnes to low Earth orbit and at least 6 tonnes to a Sun-synchronous orbit.
SatNet is operated by the state-owned China Satellite Network Group and is eventually meant to number around 13,000 spacecraft. It is not the only internet constellation China is building: private launch company LandSpace recently put 10 satellites into orbit for a rival network, Spacesail.
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Satellite internet is only one part of China’s space program. Beijing keeps launching weather, telecom and navigation satellites, works on lunar exploration technology and operates its own crewed station in Earth orbit. In 2025 the country flew a record 92 orbital missions. It has also filed with the International Telecommunication Union for more than 200,000 satellites in orbit.
