China CAS Space Lijian-1 Commercial Rocket Launches 5 Satellites to Orbit
China successfully launched five satellites aboard the Lijian-1 Y15 carrier rocket at 7:33am Beijing time on July 24, 2026, from the Dongfeng Commercial Space Innovation Pilot Zone in northwest China.
The five satellites, including an orbital data center demonstrator and a weather satellite, were placed into their preset sun-synchronous orbits. This mission marks the 15th flight of the Lijian-1 carrier rocket.
Satellite list: Tianyi-48, Gande-1-01, Xiguang-2-03, Jitianxing-A-04, and Yinglong Fengguang-1
Tianyi-48, developed by Spacety, adds another member to the company's remote sensing satellite constellation. Gande-1-01 is a scientific experiment satellite, while Xiguang-2-03 serves optical remote sensing purposes. Jitianxing-A-04 and Yinglong Fengguang-1 are dedicated to Earth observation and scientific experiments in their respective domains. Four out of five customer payloads delivered from Dongfeng have a form of artificial intelligence (AI) solutions for operational use or trials.
Lijian-1 (Kinetica-1) is CAS Space’s first launch vehicle and consists of four stages, all burning solid fuel. CAS Space offers the ability to launch a single satellite to utilize all of the rocket’s payload capacity, however more ‘rideshare’ missions occur for multiple satellites to be delivered in one launch.
The payload capacity of the launch vehicle is:
2,000 kilograms to low Earth orbit
1,500 kilograms to a 500-kilometer sun-synchronous orbit
The first-stage is powered by a solid rocket booster that burns an unspecified solid fuel, generating 200 tons of thrust. The second-stage is also powered by a solid rocket booster, producing 110 tons of thrust with the same unidentified propellant. The-third stage, also using the undisclosed propellant, generates 45 tons of thrust. Finally, the fourth-stage is powered by another solid rocket booster, providing 8 tons of thrust with the same solid propellant.
On its launch pad, Lijian-1 stands at 30 meters tall. The first two stages have a diameter of 2.65 meters, the fairing has a diameter of either 2.65 or 3.35 meters. When prepared for launch Lijian-1 weighs a believed 135,000 kilograms.
CAS Space is a Chinese commercial space launch provider based in Guangzhou, capital and largest city of Guangdong province in southern China. CAS Space was founded in 2018 and is majority owned by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).
Date: July 24, 2026
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