Lijian-1

CAS Space plans eight Lijian-1 launches, including two at-sea launches, and four Lijian-2 launches.

Other launch vehicles using the YF-102 engine include CAS Space’s Kinetica-1, Space Pioneer’s Tianlong-2, and the China Aerospace Science and Technology Commercial Launch Vehicle Group’s soon-to-debut Long March 12B.

The SPNEX satellite was deployed via a Lijian-1 carrier rocket using Chinese launch infrastructure.

Shi Xiaoning, chief designer of Kinetica 1, plans to introduce reusability features on the rocket by adding parachutes and grid fins.

On its eighth mission in August, Kinetica 1 deployed two Mexican mini satellites to orbit.

During its fifth flight in November 2024, Kinetica 1 carried 15 satellites, including IRSS-1, designed and built by the China Academy of Space Technology for Omani startup Oman Lens.

On its ninth mission in October, Kinetica 1 placed HS-1, Pakistan's first hyperspectral imaging satellite, into orbit.

Kinetica 1 missions have deployed 84 satellites with a combined mass of 11 tons, giving the vehicle the largest business share in China's commercial launch market.

The Kinetica 1 launcher can place up to 1.5 tons of payload into a typical sun-synchronous orbit around 500 kilometers above Earth.

Kinetica 1's launch of IRSS-1 was the first successful orbital launch of an Omani satellite.

Kinetica 1 is about 30 meters long, with a diameter of 2.65 meters, and a liftoff mass of 135 metric tons.

Kinetica 1's earlier launch was the first time a Chinese commercial space company orbited a satellite for a foreign client.

Reports indicate that the Kinetica-1 launch successfully deployed six multi-functional satellites, a UAE Earth observation satellite, an Egyptian scientific satellite, and one Nepalese educational satellite.

Kinetica-1 is a solid fuel rocket operated by the private company CAS Space, based in Guangzhou.

The close approach occurred between a spacecraft from China's Kinetica-1 rocket, launched on December 9, and SpaceX's Starlink satellite.

The Kinetica-1 fourth-stage deployed its payloads for their respective owners to start retrieving telemetry and managing their flights.

Kinetica-1's fourth-stage performed an orbit-lowering burn after deploying its customer satellites and is currently in a 554 by 254-kilometer sun-synchronous orbit.

CAS Space launched Kinetica-1 from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center on December 10th, carrying nine satellites into sun-synchronous orbit.