Nation kicks off busiest year for launches

China used a Long March 3B carrier rocket late on Tuesday to send an experimental communication satellite into space, marking the first launch in what is expected to be the busiest year for the nation's space industry.

The launch took place at 11:20 pm at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Sichuan province. It was the 324th mission for the Long March series carrier family, according to China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp, the country's major space contractor.

The company said the satellite－Communication Technology Experimental Satellite 5－was designed and built by its Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology and is tasked with communication, broadcasting, data transmission operations and high-throughput technology demonstration.

China's space industry is getting ready for an extremely busy year, with at least 50 launch missions likely to take place.

China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp has announced that it will strive to carry out more than 40 launch missions to serve national space programs, such as the completion of the Beidou Navigation Satellite System, as well as demands from commercial satellite operators.

China Daily has learned that all of the 40-odd planned missions will be carried out by the conglomerate's Long March-series rockets, the nation's backbone rocket fleet, and do not include those to be made by the company's newly developed Smart Dragon solid-propellant rockets.

This means the space magnate's actual launch number this year will be even bigger.

At least four of the company's new rockets－the Long March 5B, Long March 7A, Long March 8 and Smart Dragon 2－are scheduled to conduct their maiden missions this year, according to China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp.

Another State-owned giant－China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp－has plans for at least eight launch missions using its Kuaizhou carrier rockets.

Kuaizhou 11, a new type in the Kuaizhou family, will make its debut flight this year and will become the biggest and most powerful solid-propellant rocket in China.

Moreover, several private rocket companies have announced plans to launch missions this year with their own rockets.

China became the world's most frequent user of carrier rockets in 2018, and in 2019 had 32 successful orbital launches and two failures.