Rocket launches with record payload

China launched a ZK 1A carrier rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern China, transporting 26 satellites into space and setting a new record for the most spacecraft launched by a single Chinese rocket.

The 30-meter, solid-propellant rocket blasted off at 12:10 pm and soon placed the satellites into preset orbits, including the Shiyan 24A and 24B experimental satellites.

The 26 satellites are tasked with carrying out technological demonstrations and commercial remote-sensing operations, according to CAS Space, a Beijing-based rocket company owned by the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Before the mission, the domestic record for the most satellites launched by a single rocket was held by the first flight of the modified version of the Long March 8 rocket in February 2022, which deployed 22.

The ZK 1A conducted its debut flight at the center in July 2022, becoming the country's largest and most powerful solid-propellant rocket.

The rocket has a length of 30 meters, a diameter of 2.65 meters and a liftoff weight of 135 metric tons. It is capable of sending satellites with a combined weight of 1.5 tons to sun-synchronous orbit about 500 kilometers above Earth.

The rocket features a strong carrying capacity, high accuracy, a reliable design, high cost-efficiency, short prelaunch preparations, low requirements for support infrastructure and is one of the best solid-propellant carrier rockets in the world, CAS Space said.