China puts satellites into space via Smart Dragon 3 rocket

China placed 10 satellites into orbit with the launch of a Smart Dragon 3 carrier rocket from off the coast of Haiyang in Shandong province late on Sunday.

The rocket blasted off at 11:49 pm from a launch service ship, deploying the satellites, the second group of space assets in the CentiSpace network, into their preset orbital positions, China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology, maker of the Smart Dragon 3 series, stated in a news release.

The Smart Dragon 3 is a solid-propellant rocket model with a height of 31 meters and a diameter of 2.65 meters. It can carry a liftoff weight of 140 metric tons.

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

Smart Dragon 3 made its maiden flight in December 2022 from a ship in the Yellow Sea, placing 14 satellites into orbit. To date, all 10 of its launches have taken place at sea.

Developed by Beijing Future Navigation Technology, the CentiSpace satellites are used to carry out high-performance occultation detection, ionospheric data acquisition, inter-satellite laser networking communication and other tasks.

The launch was China's 17th space mission of the year to date.