China Launch of Commercial Lijian-1 Rocket with Satellites +1 for West Asia's Oman
Officially the Sultanate of Oman, the country is located on the southeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in West Asia. It overlooks the entrance to the Persian Gulf. It shares land borders with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen.
Beijing-based rocket manufacturer CAS Space, a subsidiary of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), successfully launched these 15 satellites into orbit.
The Kinetica 1-Y5 rocket lifted off at 12:03pm on November 11, 2024, from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in China's Gobi Desert, placing the satellites into their designated orbit, CAS Space announced.
The "Y5" in the rocket's code signifies it as the fifth flight of the series. It debuted in July 2022 as China's largest and most powerful solid-propellant rocket. The rocket, standing 30 meters tall and weighing 135 metric tons at liftoff, can carry payloads up to 1.5 tons into a sun-synchronous orbit approximately 500 kilometers above Earth.
Among the satellites launched was the IRSS-1, developed by the China Academy of Space Technology—a subsidiary of the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp—for Oman Lens, a startup in the Omani space industry. The satellite will assist Oman with data collection and imaging for land mapping, urban planning, forestry monitoring, and disaster management.
CAS Space upgraded the Kinetica 1's payload fairing—the protective shell housing the satellite payload—for this mission, expanding its diameter from 2.65 to 3.35 meters to accommodate the 15 satellites. This adaptation marks a milestone for the series. It has now deployed a total of 57 satellites since its debut, maintaining a 100 percent success rate.
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