China’s Lijian-1 Rocket Launches Nine Satellites at Once

China’s commercial space company CAS Space successfully launched a Lijian-1 rocket carrying nine satellites on 20 September 2026, placing all payloads into their intended orbits and extending the company’s record as the most prolific private launch operator in the country. The “one rocket, nine satellites” mission lifted off just after noon local time from the Dongfeng Commercial Aerospace Innovation Test Zone in the Gobi Desert of Inner Mongolia, near the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, according to People’s Daily.

The flight was the 16th for the Lijian-1 vehicle and the 17th launch of the broader Lijian series. CAS Space said the mission demonstrates that standardized, high-frequency rideshare launch services have matured into a reliable commercial product.

The Payloads

The nine satellites span a range of applications, reflecting the growing diversity of China’s commercial space market:

• Chaozhisuan-1, a high-resolution remote-sensing satellite led by Super Computing (Beijing) Technology Co., carrying a 4-metre visible-light camera and an onboard AI computer capable of in-orbit image processing and target identification. It is designed for smart-city management, natural-resource surveys, precision agriculture, environmental protection and emergency disaster relief.
• Diting-01 A/B/C, three commercial electromagnetic spectrum monitoring satellites developed by Tianjin Xingkan Jiuzhou Technology Co. They form China’s first three-satellite formation for commercial space-based radio-frequency data collection, capable of wide-area spectrum awareness and precise geolocation of radio emission sources.
• Pengcheng Nanke-1, a communication-computing-remote-sensing integrated verification satellite jointly developed by Galaxy Space, Pengcheng Laboratory and SUSTech, carrying a 5G NTN communications payload, an onboard AI computing payload and a satellite-ground laser communication payload capable of 100 Gbps.
• Yunxiao Pathfinder by the Institute of Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences; Qinling-01 and Qinling-02 by Northwestern Polytechnical University; and Pujiang-4 by the Shanghai Institute of Satellite Engineering.

A Track Record of Standardization

The Lijian-1, a four-stage solid-fuel vehicle developed under the technical leadership of the Institute of Mechanics with CAS Space as implementer, weighs 135 tonnes at takeoff, generates 200 tonnes of thrust, stands roughly 30 metres tall and can place 1,500 kg into a 500 km sun-synchronous orbit. It is purpose-built for small and micro-satellite constellations, offering what the company describes as a “shuttle-style” tonne-class service covering dedicated, rideshare and carpool configurations.

Cumulative figures differ slightly by source. People’s Daily reports that the Lijian series has now delivered one spacecraft and 121 satellites to space, with total in-orbit payload mass exceeding 21 tonnes. The business outlet National Business Daily put Lijian-1’s own tally at 119 satellites, with its launch schedule booked through the second half of 2027.

Meng Xiangfu, deputy commander of the Lijian-1 launch vehicle, attributed the vehicle’s commercial appeal to accumulated operational experience. Flight data and successful sub-samples gathered over more than a dozen successful launches have built a mature, full-process project-management and quality-control system, he said, and that system is the underlying reason clients place orders.

Why the Rideshare Shift Matters

The mission’s significance extends beyond the launch itself. According to a TMTPost analysis, the operator of Chaozhisuan-1—a high-value, customized satellite—could have chartered a dedicated rocket, securing exclusive orbital design, separation sequencing and launch windows. Instead, it chose to share the flight with eight other satellites.

That choice, TMTPost argued, amounts to a buyer-side endorsement of China’s standardized launch model: when a high-value customer accepts ridesharing, it signals that the reliability, cost efficiency and delivery cycle of standard services now outweigh the benefits of a dedicated launch. The outlet framed the development as moving “airline-style” rocket operation from a seller’s claim to a buyer’s acknowledgement—a meaningful transition for an industry that has only recently moved past the technology-proving stage.

A commercial-space analyst quoted by TMTPost put it bluntly: the real proof of a business model is not how many launches have been completed, but how many high-value customers are willing to accept standardized services. Standardization enables replicability, replicability enables scale, and scale is what creates profit margins.

CAS Space has reinforced that push with industrialization. The company employs a “core products self-developed, general products socialized” supply-chain strategy alongside modular design and pulsed, assembly-line final assembly. Its Guangzhou Nansha production base has adopted pulsed batch production to sustain reliability at high output.

Challenges and What’s Next

The rideshare model also carries structural limits. Under a shared manifest, a single rocket’s revenue ceiling is constrained by the number of available “seats,” making income elasticity dependent on consistently filling them. That means the commercial question ahead is not simply how many orders Lijian-1 has, but how densely each rocket can be packed—the key variable determining the revenue ceiling.

CAS Space is also preparing to broaden its mission envelope. The company plans its first sea launch of Lijian-1 in waters near Guangdong province in the near term, a step intended to expand mission adaptability and enable coordinated land-and-sea commercial launch delivery, the outlet reported.

The company’s ambitions come amid a broader surge in Chinese commercial space. A cluster of new remote-sensing, communications and in-orbit computing payloads—including the AI-equipped Chaozhisuan-1—points to a market increasingly oriented toward delivering processed data from orbit rather than raw imagery. CAS Space itself passed listing-counseling acceptance for a STAR Market IPO earlier this year, even as it continues to work toward profitability.

For now, the 20 September flight stands as a concise demonstration of how far the sector has come: nine satellites, one solid-fuel rocket, and a business case that its customer chose to buy into.