Chinese Space Company Launches Unnamed Internet Satellite Charging

CASC launched an internet technology test satellite (photo: Weixin CASC)

JAKARTA - China's Space Science and Technology Company (CASC) announced that the Long March 2D rocket successfully launched on Thursday, November 23 carrying satellite payloads.

CASC did not specify the payload, such as the nature or design of its payload. They only say that the satellite that has been launched is part of a technology test for the satellite internet.

Spacenews has been looking for other information about the satellite carried by Long March 2D, but China-based Xinhua media cannot even describe the nature or type of the satellite.

The only information found was the developer of the satellite. Shanghai Space Aviation Technology Academy (SAST) and Innovation Academy for Microsatellite (IAMCAS) are developers of the satellite.

So far, Spacenews suspects that the satellite that has been launched by CASC is Guowang. Earlier this year, CASC made a contract with IAMCAS and the Chinese Space Technology Academy (CAST) to produce the Guowang satellite.

Through this project, CASC plans to create a constellation of Guowang with 13,000 satellites in orbit, beating SpaceX's Starlink constellation which has now reached 5,000 satellites in orbit and wants to reach 40,000 satellites.

This satellite was planned to launch with a modified Long March 5B or Long March 8 rocket using the upper stage of Yuanzheng-2, very similar to the launch this time which uses Yuanzeng-3 as the first phase of Long March 2D.

It is not known why CASC chose to use the unknown satellite name and did not specify the payload. However, this launch is not the first time that CASC was caught launching a Long March 2C rocket last July.

Long March 2C used the top stage of YZ-1S by bringing satellite internet technology test satellites. At that time, mediaXinhua reported that CASC launched one satellite, but there were two satellites that actually entered orbit.