Azernews.Az

by Alimat Aliyeva

China has launched eight satellites into orbit using the Lijian-1 Y12 rocket, AzerNEWS reports.

The launch took place from the private commercial spaceport in northwest China, the Dongfeng Commercial Space Innovation Test Area, at 12:03 Beijing time (08:03 Baku time). The rocket successfully placed all eight satellites into their planned orbit. This mission marked the 12th flight of the Lijian-1 series.

The Lijian-1 rocket family was developed by CAS Space, a company founded by the Institute of Mechanics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. These solid-fuel rockets are designed to deploy multiple small and microsatellites in a single launch, supporting the rapid expansion of satellite networks used for Earth observation, communications, and scientific research. To date, more than 90 satellites have been delivered into orbit using the Lijian-1 series.

China’s growing use of small, cost-efficient launch vehicles like Lijian-1 reflects a global trend toward “rideshare” satellite missions. Instead of launching one large satellite at a time, modern rockets increasingly carry clusters of microsatellites, helping build large orbital constellations faster and at lower cost—similar to systems used for broadband internet, climate monitoring, and disaster response.