At 3:48 am, a Smart Dragon 3 rocket lifted off from a sea-based platform near Rizhao in Shandong province, placing 11 multifunction satellites into low-Earth orbit about 600 km above Earth. The launch marked the seventh maritime flight for this solid-fueled rocket, developed by the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology.
Standing 31 meters tall and weighing 140 tons at liftoff, Smart Dragon 3 uses a solid-propellant engine with 71 tons of fuel producing 200 tons of thrust. It can deliver payloads of up to 1.5 tons into a 500 km sun-synchronous orbit. To date, China has executed 18 sea-based missions using four rocket families: Long March 11, Smart Dragon 3, Ceres 1, and Gravity 1.
The satellites aboard, built by Zhejiang-based Geespace, will expand the Geely constellation. They will operate alongside 41 previously launched spacecraft to support marine industries, transportation management, power generation, IoT experiments, inter-satellite communications, and environmental monitoring.
Just over six hours later, a Long March 7A rocket lifted off at 10 am from Wenchang Space Launch Center in Hainan province, deploying the Yaogan 45 remote-sensing satellite into orbit. Constructed by the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology, a unit of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp, Yaogan 45 will support scientific experiments, land surveys, agricultural monitoring, and disaster prevention.
Remote-sensing satellites capture data on land and sea by measuring reflected and emitted radiation. China's Yaogan series has become a cornerstone resource for government agencies, public services, and commercial sectors.
The Long March 7A, also developed by the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology, weighs 573 tons at launch, with a 3.35-meter core diameter. It can carry a 7-ton payload into geosynchronous transfer orbit. Tuesday's mission marked the 594th flight of the Long March family and China's 55th launch of 2025.
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