In a successful commercial space mission carried out on Tuesday, China launched its Long March-8 carrier rocket from the Hainan commercial spacecraft launch site located on the country’s southern Hainan Island, placing 18 new internet satellites into their pre-planned orbital positions.
The liftoff of the rocket occurred at 9:32 pm Beijing Time, marking another milestone in the expansion of China’s domestic satellite internet infrastructure. The 18 satellites delivered to orbit constitute the seventh batch of networking satellites developed for the Qianfan Constellation, a planned large-scale low-Earth orbit satellite network designed to deliver global internet connectivity services.
The launch, conducted from China’s purpose-built commercial space launch facility in Hainan, demonstrates the continued reliability of the Long March rocket family and advances the country’s progress in building out its commercial space sector. This mission adds additional nodes to the growing Qianfan network, bringing the constellation closer to its operational goal of providing comprehensive, uninterrupted internet coverage across the globe.
As demand for global satellite internet connectivity continues to rise driven by increasing remote work, IoT deployment, and connectivity needs in underserved regions, progress in the Qianfan Constellation project represents a key step forward in China’s commercial space development ambitions.