Rocket to cut cost of missions

Clients can alter specifications for the Kuaizhou series to suit requirements

China conducted on Monday the first flight of a new solid-fuel carrier rocket, which designers say can save clients about $10 million on each mission compared with similar US products.

The Kuaizhou 1A blasted off from a launch vehicle at 12:11 pm at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Northwest China to lift three small satellites - Jilin 1C, XY S1 and Caton 1 - into a sun-synchronous orbit.