Behind the Scenes: China Gravity-1 Commercial Solid Fueled Rocket Satellite Launch

Behind the Scenes: China Gravity-1 Commercial Solid Fueled Rocket Satellite Launch

China's Gravity-1 Y3 carrier rocket successfully placed nine satellites into planned orbits during a sea launch from the eastern waters off Shanghai at 06:00 Beijing time on Wednesday, September 16, 2026, setting new records for payload weight and orbit altitude in a single mission. Gravity-1 is the world's most powerful solid-fuel carrier rocket and China's most powerful commercial launch vehicle to date.

The mission was carried out by the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center. The rocket carried a new group of Qianfan Constellation satellites and an EUHT technology test satellite. It was the fourth flight of the Gravity-1 rocket.

Gravity-1 is a solid-fuel rocket developed by a Chinese commercial aerospace company, OrienSpace, with a maximum payload capacity of 6.5 tons. This launch was the second time Gravity-1 conducted a far-sea maneuver and launch, following the first on July 22, when the Gravity-1 Y4 rocket lifted off from the same area and sent nine satellites into the planned orbits.

It once again fully tested the rocket's adaptability to high temperature, high humidity and high salt fog at sea, further verifying its reliability, according to experts.

"We've fully used the rocket's entire carrying capacity, just leaving a ballistic margin of slightly more than 100 kilograms with everything else devoted to launch payload. For the 800-kilometer orbit, our current utilization has exceeded three tons," said Xu Guoguang, chief designer of Gravity-1 at Orienspace.

The mission also marked the world's first solid rocket launch of stacked satellites, designed to meet the networking needs of large-scale constellations. Gravity-1 adopted a stacked arrangement, placing multiple satellites on top of one another like "stacking blocks" to improve the utilization of space inside the fairing and the payload ratio.

"In the past, when it came to multi-payload launch, the satellites were usually mounted on a load-bearing cylinder in a wall-mounted way, so the rocket's space utilization was not particularly high. The biggest advantage of stacked satellites is that they significantly boost rocket efficiency. For the satellites, the average launch cost is correspondingly lower," Xu said.

The Qianfan satellites were made by the Innovation Academy for Microsatellites at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, bringing the total number deployed to 256.

This launch was the 4th mission for Gravity-1. This was also the 64th launch from China in 2026.

The Qianfan satellites were made by the Innovation Academy for Microsatellites at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, bringing the total number deployed to 256. Costing under 10 million RMB (1.47 million United States dollars) apiece, each Qianfan satellite weighs 300 kilograms and has a ‘flat pack’ design with a single solar array to fit as many satellites as possible inside the rocket fairing in two parallel stacks. For maneuvering in orbit, each satellite has an electric hall-effect thruster burning krypton to generate 20 millinewtons of thrust with a specific impulse of 1,385 seconds.

The Qianfan mega-constellation is operated by Shanghai Spacesail Technologies Co. Ltd. that aims to provide space-based Internet connectivity services in China and abroad in places including Brazil, Malaysia, Kazakhstan, Türkiye, and via airlines, around the fourth quarter of this year.

Video Credit: OrienSpace
Duration: 2 minutes, 37 seconds
Release Date: Sept. 17, 2026

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