9 satellites

Where it was visible

Daytime launch: visible as an exhaust trail near the pad.

None of the major cities we track had a good view; it's visible mainly near the pad.

Estimates from a typical ascent toward the likely orbit. Real trajectories, cloud and haze vary; the farther away, the lower and shorter the view.

Mission

Share-ride of 9 commercial Earth observation and technology demonstration satellites to SSO, details TBD.

Launch time (UTC)

Sep 20, 04:03 UTC

Precision

Minute

Window

Sep 20, 03:54 UTC – Sep 20, 04:15 UTC

Orbit

SSO

Mission type

Earth Science

Pad

Launch Area 130

Rocket · Kinetica 1

Kinetica 1 (also known as Lijian-1, Chinese: 力箭一号) is a Chinese solid-propellant light launch vehicle. It is capable of placing about 2 tons into low earth orbit and 1.5 tons into sun-synchronous orbit. It is developed by CAS Space, a subsidiary of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Kinetica 1 is a light launcher whose first stage seems to be derived from the DF-31 long-range intercontinental ballistic missile. It is 30 m high and has a diameter of 2.65 m, with a liftoff mass of 135 t. It's the largest Chinese solid propellant launcher to date, with four stages with a thrust of 200, 100, 50 and 10 tons respectively. The fairing has a diameter of 3.35 meters.

Height

30 m

Diameter

2.65 m

Liftoff mass

135 t

Liftoff thrust

1,961 kN

To LEO

2,000 kg

Track record

15 / 16 successful

Success streak

10

First flight

2022-07-27

Reusable

No