Chinese commercial Lijian-1 rocket launches 15 satellites

A Chinese commercial rocket sent 15 satellites into orbit late Sunday, including launch service provider CAS Space’s first international payload. The Lijian-1 (Kinetica-1) solid rocket lifted off at 11:03 p.m. Eastern Nov. 10 (0403 UTC, Nov. 11) from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. The CAS Space launch report states the launch occurred within the “Dongfeng Commercial Space Innovation Test Area.” The area likely refers to a growing section of Jiuquan spaceport hosting launch areas for companies including CAS Space, Landspace, Space Pioneer and others. It is one of a number of initiatives to allow China to facilitate new commercial rockets and break a bottleneck in spaceport access. More

(Source: SpaceNews - Nov 12)