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The industry of commercial launches in China is really starting.
The Smart Dragon-1 private rocket, built by China Rocket Co. Ltd., completed its first mission on Saturday, August 17, successfully launching three small satellites in Earth orbit, Chinese media reported.
The milestone comes less than a month after the launch by another Chinese company, iSpace, of the first private orbital launch and just a week after yet another company, LinkSpace, shot of a rocket landing after a test flight in the Earth 's atmosphere.
Related: China in space: the latest news and the latest launches
The Chinese private rocket Smart Dragon-1 launches its first orbital mission on August 17, 2019.
(Image credit: CCTV)
The four-stage Smart Dragon-1 is similar in size and launch power to the payload at Electron, the two-stage booster built by the California company. Rocket Lab. The Chinese launcher, also known as Jielong-1, is 64 feet (19.5 meters) tall, 4 feet (1.2 meters) wide and weighs 25.5 tons (23.1 tons) on takeoff . The rocket can supply about 440 pounds. (200 kilograms) payload on a 500 km (500 km) heliosynchronous orbit, according to the Xinhua Chinese Information Service.
China Rocket is not a purely private outfit. The company is a subsidiary of the Chinese Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT), which is itself part of the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC). CASC is China's leading aviation supplier and CALT has built most of China's long-running rockets over the years.
Nevertheless, the existence of China Rocket continues to push the country to develop a native commercial launching area.
"The commercial launch will represent a vast market in areas such as low-Earth orbit mobile Internet communication and remote sensing," said China Rocket President Tang Yagang. told Xinhua.
The company has developed the Smart Dragon-1 solid fuel in less than 18 months, reported Xinhua. The first mission will open the door to many more launches, if all goes as planned. China Rocket wants to fly four more times before the end of 2020, reported Xinhua.
The private China Smart Dragon-1 is a four-stage solid fuel rocket.
(Image credit: CCTV)
The California Rocket Lab also plans to increase its launch rate. The society that has launched its eighth Electron mission this morning (August 19), possibly wants to fly every week or maybe even more often than that.
Rocket Lab takes several steps to get there. The company is building a second launch site in Virginia, for example, in addition to the site already operational in New Zealand. And Rocket Lab plans to reuse the first Electron floors after removing them from the air with a helicopter.
The three payloads built on Saturday by Smart Dragon-1 were developed by three Beijing-based companies, Xinhua reported. One satellite will provide communications services, another will be dedicated to remote sensing and the third will be designed to help pave the way for the constellation of "the Internet of Things".
Mike Wall's book on the search for extraterrestrial life, "Over there"(Grand Central Publishing, 2018, illustrated by Karl Tate), is out now. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall. Follow us on twitter @Spacedotcom or Facebook.
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