Struck by Lightning Mid-Flight, a Chinese Rocket Still Delivered Its Satellite to Orbit
A Long March 3B rocket climbing out of the Xichang Satellite Launch Center on July 23 was hit by a lightning strike approximately 30 seconds after liftoff. Amateur footage from a nearby viewing area captured the moment and quickly spread across Chinese social media. Despite the strike, the rocket continued its ascent and delivered its payload to geostationary transfer orbit without issue.
The payload was the Tianlian-2 (06) relay satellite, built by the China Academy of Space Technology for the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC). The satellite is the latest in China’s second-generation Tianlian series, a constellation of geostationary relay spacecraft that provide communications, tracking, and telemetry support for crewed missions, the Tiangong space station, and other orbital assets. The first satellite in the second-generation series launched in 2019.
CASC’s post-launch statement did not mention the lightning event and declared the mission a complete success.
The incident evokes several historical parallels. Apollo 12 suffered a lightning strike seconds after launch in 1969 but continued to the Moon. A 2019 Soyuz launch carrying a Glonass-M satellite was also hit without mission impact. The 1987 Atlas-Centaur 67 flight was not so fortunate: that lightning strike caused a guidance system failure and total vehicle loss, which led to the tightening of lightning launch commit criteria used by launch providers worldwide.
Hours later, a second Chinese rocket lifted off from a different site. CAS Space’s Kinetica-1, a solid-fuel rocket also known as Lijian-1, launched from the Dongfeng Commercial Aerospace Innovation Test Zone at Jiuquan at 7:33 p.m. Eastern (2333 UTC). It carried five satellites to orbit.
The payloads included the Chenguang-1 space computing satellite for Beijing Orbital Chenguang Technology, a company that secured $8.4 billion in credit lines in April 2026 for orbital data center plans. Gande-1 (01) is described as China’s first commercial space debris monitoring satellite, equipped with wide-field survey and high-precision imaging cameras. Xiguang-2 (03) is a three-band high-resolution infrared remote sensing satellite. Jitianxing A-04 is an intelligent computing satellite from Zhejiang Lab. Yinglong Fengguang-1 is a commercial meteorological satellite carrying a humidity sounder and infrared camera.
These two launches brought China’s 2026 orbital launch tally to 51 attempts. The country is targeting more than 100 orbital launches within a calendar year for the first time. CAS Space told Chinese state media that it plans monthly launches for the remainder of 2026.
Images:
- Long March 3B lightning strike footage (amateur video on Chinese social media)
- CASC official launch photo: https://www.casc.gov.cn