SAEDNEWS: China launched a new group of Geely-05 constellation satellites in a single mission from east China's Shandong Province on Tuesday morning.
A Smart Dragon-3 rocket, carrying 11 satellites, blasted off at 3:48 a.m. from the sea near the Rizhao City, sending them into preset orbits. The offshore launch mission was carried out by the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center, CGTN reported.
The Geely constellation, owned by GeeSpace, a subsidiary of Geely Technology Group, is expected to have a total of 72 satellites by 2025 in the first phase, providing global users with commercial satellite Internet of Things communication services.
Developed by China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology, China's Smart Dragon-3 rocket is a four-stage solid-propellant carrier rocket designed mainly for launching spacecraft to the sun-synchronous orbit or low Earth orbit.
It can send a payload of 1.5 tones to a sun-synchronous orbit at an altitude of 500 kilometers.
The launch marks the seventh flight mission of the rocket.
