According to Chinese state media, a compact yet strong Chinese rocket successfully launched nine satellites into orbit on Saturday. This marks the beginning of what is expected to be a busy year for Chinese commercial launches, with competitive costs for payload delivery.

The Jielong-3, also known as Smart Dragon-3, was launched from a floating barge near Yangjiang in the southern Guangdong province. This was the second launch of the rocket in only two months.

In December 2022, Jielong-3 took its inaugural flight, developed by China Rocket Company, a subsidiary of a government-owned company that produces launch vehicles for commercial purposes.

Xi Jinping, the President, has urged for the growth of important fields such as the commercial space industry. This is crucial in creating groups of satellites for communication, remote sensing, and navigation purposes.

On Saturday, the Chinese company Geely Holding Group released 11 satellites in order to improve their ability to offer precise navigation for self-driving cars.

In 2021, China had a total of 17 commercial launches with one unsuccessful launch, which was part of their record-breaking 67 orbital launches. This was an increase from the previous year, where there were 10 Chinese commercial launches, two of which were unsuccessful.

In the year 2023, China had the second highest number of launches after the United States. The United States had a total of 116 launch attempts, with nearly 100 of them being conducted by Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

China’s success in constructing commercial satellite networks relies on its capability to increase launch opportunities, diversify rocket models to accommodate varying payload capacities, decrease launch expenses and expand the number of launch locations.