Long March 6 Launches 9 Satellites into Orbit

A Chinese Long March 6 booster launched nine satellites from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center on Tuesday at 11:20 a.m. local time in the inaugural flight of a new commercial rideshare program.

Long March 6 placed the following satellites into sun synchronous orbit:

• Origin Space NEO-1 — asteroid mining technology demonstration
• Qilu-1 — synthetic aperture radar
• Qilu-4 — optical remote sensing
• Foshan-1 — optical remote sensing
• Apocalypse Constellation Zero Nine Star — Internet of Things (IoT)
• Golden Bauhinia-1 01 — visible light remote sensing
• Golden Bauhinia-1 02 — visible light remote sensing
• Zhongan Guotong-1 — optical remote sensing
• Tianqi-9 — optical remote sensing

It was the first rideshare mission under the new Long March Express service launched by the China Great Wall Industry Group Company, a subsidiary of China Aerospace Science and Technology Group.

Origin Space NEO-1 satellite is a scientific research and technology verification satellite used to observe small celestial bodies and to verify prototype technology for the acquisition of space resources.

Origin Space NEO-1 was developed by Shanghai Aerospace Science and Technology Co., a wholly-owned subsidiary of the 805 Institute of the Eighth Academy of Aerospace Science and Technology Group.

Qilu-1 is a synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite that will obtain ground microwave wavelength images and verify on-orbit autonomous mission planning, on-orbit image processing and low-orbit inter-satellite laser communication technology.

Qilu-4 is an optical remote sensing satellite that will return high-resolution images for use in land use planning, urban construction, agriculture, forestry, energy, and disaster prevention and mitigation in Shandong Province.

Foshan-1 is an optical remote sensing satellite that will carry out on-orbit verification of flexible platform and integrated design, ultra-lightweight camera design, and high-resolution imaging technology.

Apocalypse Constellation Zero Nine Star is a low-orbit IoT communications satellite. The spacecraft was developed by Shanghai Aerospace Science and Technology Company.

The two Golden Bauhinia satellites are visible light remote sensing satellites used to observe ground targets.

The Zhong’an Guotong-1 and Taijing-2 01 satellites will conduct optical remote sensing activities.

It was the fifth success in as many launch attempts for the Long March 6 booster, and the 366th launch of the Long March series.

The Long March 6 launch vehicle was developed by the Eighth Academy of the Aerospace Science and Technology Group. The new generation small liquid launch vehicle can place 1 metric ton payloads into 700-kilometer sun-synchronous orbit.