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The SQX-1 Y1 solid-propellant carrier rocket blasts off from a launchpad located in rocky terrain at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert, July 25, 2019. (Photo provided to China News Service)
A private Chinese company used its own carrier rocket to send two satellites and several experimental payloads into space on Thursday, marking the first successful orbital mission by the country's commercial space industry.
The SQX-1 Y1 solid-propellant carrier rocket, the first in the SQX-1 series, blasted off at 1:00 pm (exact time to be filled later) from a launchpad located in rocky terrain at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert.
Nearly 15 minutes after the ignition, the 25-meter-tall rocket successfully deployed two satellites — one from the State-owned defense conglomerate, China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp, and the other from the Beijing Institute of Technology — into a low-Earth orbit about 300 kilometers above the ground.
The SQX-1 Y1 solid-propellant carrier rocket blasts off from a launchpad located in rocky terrain at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert, July 25, 2019. (Photo provided to China News Service)
The SQX-1 Y1 solid-propellant carrier rocket blasts off from a launchpad located in rocky terrain at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert, July 25, 2019. (Photo provided to China News Service)
