China has reinforced its expanding space capabilities with another successful maritime launch operation, deploying ten satellites into orbit using the Smart Dragon 3 carrier rocket. The launch occurred Sunday at 23:49 from a specialized launch service vessel stationed off the coastal waters of Haiyang in Shandong Province.
The China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology, primary developer of the Smart Dragon rocket series, confirmed the mission’s complete success. The deployed satellites represent the second operational cluster within the CentiSpace satellite network, now positioned in their predetermined orbital slots.
Technical specifications reveal the Smart Dragon 3 as a substantial solid-propellant launch vehicle, standing 31 meters tall with a diameter of 2.65 meters. The rocket possesses a notable launch capacity of 140 metric tons and can transport payloads weighing up to 1.5 tons to sun-synchronous orbits approximately 500 kilometers above Earth.
Beijing Future Navigation Technology, the entity behind the CentiSpace satellite constellation, designed these advanced spacecraft to perform sophisticated functions including high-precision occultation detection, ionospheric data collection, and pioneering inter-satellite laser communication networking.
This launch marks the tenth consecutive maritime deployment for the Smart Dragon 3 system since its inaugural flight in December 2022, when it successfully placed fourteen satellites into orbit from the Yellow Sea. The mission represents China’s seventeenth documented space endeavor of the current year, demonstrating the nation’s accelerating pace in space technology development and deployment.