Business in the mountains [Kuaizhou-1A Flight-27]
ExPace's Kuaizhou-1A deliverd four Tianqi satellties to low Earth orbit as the thrid launch in under 48 hours.
ExPace, one of China’s commercial launch companies, launched a Kuaizhou-1A from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center at 17:43 pm China Standard Time, or 09:43 am Universal Coordinated Time, on September 20th as part of a busy two days of launches from China. Nearly two days earlier a Long March 3B/E also lifted off from Xichang with a Long March 2D blasting off from Taiyuan five hours before ExPace’s mission.
Riding atop of Kuaizhou-1A from Xichang were four Tianqi satellites, numbered twenty-nine through thirty-two, as part of a thirty-eight satellite constellation. Tianqi (天启) is an Internet-of-Things constellation from Guodian Gaoke (国电高科).
Guodian Gaoke aims to provide ‘enhanced connectivity and efficiency’ for connected devices with its constellation, notably also connecting previously unserved regions by terrestrial services. Once all thirty-eight satellites are in orbit, the Tianqi constellation will fly over most of the Earth every ten minutes. Further expansion plans for the constellation could see up to 3,880 satellites launched in the coming decade.
ExPace, and its parent company the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation, did not state much about the launch mission aside from that the vehicle had undergone technical optimization to shorten launch operations along with improvements to reliability.
This launch was the 27th flight of the Kuaizhou-1A launch vehicle, and the 33rd launch of the Kuiazhou series, as well as being the 43rd launch from China this year.
Liftoff video via China航天 on Weibo.
As of writing (September 20th), the Y number for this launch has not been shared by the manufacturer.
Chinese companies, state-owned and private, use Y followed by a number to serialize launch mission numbering, similar to NASA with STS.
Check out the previous launch from ExPace
![SAST and ExPace fly to SSO [Long March 2D Y98 & Kuaizhou-11 Y4]](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1300,h_650,c_fill,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep,g_auto/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F78bb4b86-f7da-4b17-b77d-817e4a410e48_780x456.png)
What is Kuaizhou-1A?
This section is for those less familiar with China's various commercial launch vehicles.
The Kuaizhou-1A is one of the first commercial launch vehicles from China having been developed by the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation (CASIC) and now manufactured by ExPace, a wholly owned subsidiary of CASIC. The first three stages of the vehicle burn an unspecified solid propellant with a liquid-fuelled fourth-stage for orbital insertion.
The payload capacity of the launch vehicle is currently as follows:
300 kilograms to low Earth orbit
200 kilograms to a 700-kilometer sun-synchronous orbit
On the launch pad, Kuaizhou-1A is believed to be 19.8 meters tall. Details about the vehicle are scarce but the fairing’s diameter is believed to be 1.4 meters. Four grid fins and various attitude control thrusters on the fourth-stage help control the vehicle during flight.
So far the Kuaizhou-1A has flown from all three inland launch sites, the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center, and the Xichang Satellite Launch Center.