This was reported by Xinhua, according to Ukrinform’s report.

The rocket carrying the spacecraft took off from the Jiuquan Cosmodrome in the Gobi Desert in northwestern China at 12:03 local time (06:03 Kiev time) and successfully placed all satellites into their planned orbits.

Although the Xinhua report did not provide information about the destination of the satellites, it was previously reported that CAS SPACE had completed the tests of the Lijian-1 Y3 rocket and delivered it to the launch pad for the launch of five Taijing family satellites belonging to China’s MinoSpace. This spacecraft weighs 240-350 kg and is designed for radar and optical surveillance of the Earth’s surface.

The Lijian-1 rocket (also known as Kinetica-1) is the first lightweight four-stage solid-fuel rocket built by CAS Space, the commercial arm of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).

It has a height of 30 m, a diameter of 2.65 m and a weight of 149 tons, and can lift up to 2,000 kg of payload into Earth orbit.

The first flight of “Lijian-1” took place on July 27, 2022, when it launched 6 satellites into space.

The current launch was the third mission of the Lijian-1 launch vehicle series and China’s 16th orbital launch since the beginning of the year.

As reported by Ukrinform, the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has restored contact with the Ingenuity helicopter.

Photo: “Xinhua”