First private rocket launched from East China Sea

Orienspace, a private Chinese rocket maker, conducted the third flight of its Gravity 1 carrier rocket on Wednesday morning, marking the first time a private Chinese rocket has lifted off from the East China Sea.

The 30-meter-tall rocket blasted off at 10:54 am from a launch service ship off the coast of Shanghai and soon placed its payloads — nine satellites and one experimental device — into their preset orbits.

The mission marked the first launch by a private Chinese rocket from the East China Sea and the closest space launch to Shanghai to date.

Before the mission, the only rocket launch from the East China Sea took place in April 2022, when the State-owned China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp used a Long March 11 rocket to deploy five Earth-observation satellites.