Commercial space firm launches first satellite for foreign client

CAS Space, a Beijing-based rocket maker owned by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, conducted the fifth flight of its Kinetica 1 rocket model on Monday afternoon, transporting 15 satellites, including one built by China for Oman, into space.

It marked the first time that a Chinese commercial space company has launched any satellite for a foreign client. It is also the first time that an Omani satellite has been successfully put into orbit.

The Kinetica 1-Y5 rocket lifted off at 12:03 pm from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert and carried the satellites to their preset orbit, the company said in a news release.

The "Y5" in the designation code means it is the fifth in the rocket series.

Among the satellites launched by the rocket, the IRSS-1 was designed and built by the China Academy of Space Technology, a subsidiary of the State-owned space conglomerate China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp, for the Omani space industry startup Oman Lens.

The contract for the satellite's manufacturing and launch service was jointly signed by the China Great Wall Industry, CASC's international business wing, and the Omani company.

The IRSS-1 is equipped with artificial intelligence-enable computing apparatus that can process data and images in orbit, according to its designers.

The satellite is tasked with collecting data and images for land mapping, urban construction planning, forestry resources survey and disaster monitoring for the Middle Eastern nation.

The Kinetica 1 series conducted its debut flight at the Jiuquan spaceport in July 2022, making it the country's largest and most powerful solid-propellant rocket at the time.

The rocket has a length of 30 meters and a liftoff weight of 135 metric tons. It is capable of sending satellites with a combined weight of 1.5 tons to a typical sun-synchronous orbit about 500 kilometers above Earth.

To send the 15 satellites, CAS Space mounted a larger payload fairing, which holds and protects the spacecraft carried by a launch vehicle.

The payload fairings of the four previously launched Kinetica 1 rockets all had the same diameter of 2.65 meters. On the Kinetica 1-Y5, the diameter is 3.35 meters.

As of now, Kinetica 1 rockets have deployed a combined 57 satellites in space, boasting a 100-percent success rate.

CAS Space has begun to develop a new rocket, Kinetica 2, and plans to conduct its maiden flight in September 2025.

The Kinetica 2 will be a medium-lift, liquid-fuel rocket. The 53-meter new model will consist of a multistage core booster, which will have a diameter of 3.35 meters, and two side boosters.

It will have a liftoff weight of 628 tons, a maximum thrust of 766 tons and will be able to transport spacecraft with a combined weight of 7.8 tons to a sun-synchronous orbit or 12 tons to a low-Earth orbit.

After entering service, the Kinetica 2 will be used to transport the Qingzhou-series cargo spacecraft, which is now being developed at the Innovation Academy for Microsatellites of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, to China's Tiangong space station, according to CAS Space.