Orienspace launches third Gravity-1 mission from East China Sea
Chinese commercial launch firm Orienspace successfully completed its third Gravity-1 mission on July 21, sending nine satellites into orbit from a ship in the East China Sea off Shanghai.
The 30-meter (98-foot) solid rocket lifted off at 10:54 p.m. Eastern (0254 UTC, July 22) from a mobile launch service vessel. The mission was Orienspace’s first long-range sea launch, conducted farther from the coast than its previous two launches, which used facilities near Haiyang in Shandong province.
The payloads included six Dongpo satellites built by MinoSpace for the Huantian constellation, under a $111 million contract awarded in 2025. The Dongpo satellites comprise two optical units equipped with artificial intelligence for onboard target recognition and analysis, and four synthetic aperture radar satellites designed for formation flying and millimeter-level surface deformation monitoring.
Three additional satellites rode as secondary payloads: Xiguang-2 (01), a hyperspectral satellite from Xi’an CAS Xiguang Aerospace Technology Group; Tianyi-49, built by Spacety; and Zidingxiang-3 (Lilac-3), an ultra-flat disk satellite developed by Harbin Institute of Technology and Beijing Taikonlink Technology.
The flight brings China’s 2026 launch tally to 49 orbital attempts, with three failures so far. The country is on track to exceed 100 launches this year, which would beat its national record of 92 set in 2025. Upcoming missions include a Long March 3B, Kinetica-1, and Long March 8A launches scheduled for July 23-24.
Orienspace is meanwhile developing Gravity-2, a two-stage reusable liquid rocket targeting a debut in the fourth quarter of this year.