Kinetica-1, also known as 'Lijian-1', is a solid-fuel launch vehicle developed by the Chinese commercial space launch services enterprise CAS Space. This launch vehicle is 30 m (98 ft) tall and consists of four all solid fuel stages. It is the largest Chinese solid propellant launcher to date. The Kinetica-1 rocket is capable of lifting 1.65 tons to SSO (sun-synchronous orbit) at an altitude of 500 km or 2.20 tons to LEO (low-earth orbit). Because of its design, the Kinetica-1 rocket is often called the Chinese answer to the European VEGA launcher. After the first ground tests, which took place in November 2021, Kinetica-1 performed its maiden flight on 27 July 2022, successfully positioning six satellites in SSO (sun-synchronous orbit). For the second flight, the Kinetica-1 carried a cluster of 26 minisatellites into SSO, prepared by various national research institutes, together with an Earth observation satellite, equipped with SAR Radar (Synthetic Aperture Radar), called Fucheng -1. CAS Space was founded in 2018 and is partially owned by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). Learn all about the different launches of the Kinetica-1 commercial rocket from the Chinese space company CAS Space thanks to this overview!
This article was published by FutureSpaceFlight founder and chief editor Kris Christiaens.
Kris Christiaens has been passionate and fascinated by spaceflight and space exploration all his life and has written hundreds of articles on space projects, the commercial space industry and space missions over the past 20 years for magazines, books and websites. In late 2021, he founded the website FutureSpaceFlight with the goal of promoting new space companies and commercial space projects and compiling news of these start-ups and companies on one website.
SATech 01
OmanSat 1
CASAA-Sat (Université d'Aix-Marseille)
ThumbSat 1 (ThumbSat)