China launches new internet satellite group

China launched a Long March-12 carrier rocket on Saturday from a commercial spacecraft launch site in the southern island province of Hainan, sending an internet satellite group into space.

This mission delivered the 27th group of low-orbit internet satellites. These satellites are part of China's national SatNet mega-constellation initiative, which is designed to build a space-based global broadband internet grid. It is a two-stage, single-core rocket developed by the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technolog. It features a diameter of 3.8 meters and is powered by liquid oxygen/kerosene engines.

This facility was explicitly constructed to accelerate commercial launch cadences, bypass the operational bottlenecks of traditional military-run sites, and support the rapid deployment of large-scale commercial constellations.