South China Sea hosts first space launch mission

Smart Dragon 3 is capable of sending multiple satellites with a total combined weight of 1.5 tons to a typical sun-synchronous orbit at an altitude of 500 kilometers.

The new rocket is suitable for clients who wish to quickly launch large numbers of their satellites to establish space-based commercial networks as soon as possible, according to Jin Xin, the rocket's project manager.

Before the latest mission, China had performed six sea-based launches - four by the Long March 11 rocket, one by the Smart Dragon 3 and another one by the Ceres 1 rocket of the Beijing-based private company Galactic Energy. All of those took place in the Yellow Sea.