China's LandSpace launches sixth flight of its methane-propelled carrier rocket

LandSpace, a Beijing-based private enterprise, carried out the sixth flight of its ZQ 2E methane-propelled carrier rocket on Tuesday, transporting 10 satellites into orbit.

According to the company, the rocket blasted off at 2:26 pm from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Northwest China, deploying the satellites into their preset orbit.

The satellites are part of the Spacesail Constellation network, which is run by Shanghai-based satellite operator Spacesail.

According to LandSpace, each ZQ 2E is 47.3 meters tall and 3.35 meters wide, with a liftoff weight of 219 metric tons and a launch thrust of 282 tons. The model is capable of placing satellites with a combined weight of 4 tons into a typical Sun-synchronous orbit about 500 kilometers above the Earth.

The launch marked China's 65th space mission this year.