China keeps up pace in broadband satellite race

China is speeding up the forming of Starlink-style massive internet networks to establish its presence in the burgeoning market of broadband services.

In the latest move, on Sunday night a giant rocket was used to transport a large number of satellites into space for one of its major internet mega-constellations.

At 9:43 pm local time, a Long March 8A rocket blasted off from the Hainan International Commercial Aerospace Launch Center, a coastal spaceport in Wenchang city, and soon afterwards deployed the satellites into a polar orbit, according to the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp, the leading State-owned space contractor.

The satellites are the 15th group of space-based components in the Spacesail Constellation, developed and funded by the Shanghai-based satellite operator Spacesail.

The Long March 8A model, developed by the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology, is 50.5 meters tall, and has a liftoff weight of 371 metric tons and a liftoff thrust of about 480 tons.

The model is mainly tasked with deploying satellites to sun-synchronous orbits, and is capable of transporting several tons of payloads to a typical sun-synchronous orbit with an altitude of 700 kilometers.

Sunday's launch marked the 49th space mission in China this year and the 656th flight of the Long March rocket family.

On Saturday, a Long March 6A rocket launched from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in Shanxi province, placing 18 satellites for the Spacesail Constellation.