China’s Zhuque-2E launches ten satellites into orbit

A Zhuque-2E Y4 rocket delivered ten satellites to their planned orbits on October 14, CGTN reported. Eight are intended for orbital computing and two for laser-communications tests.

Eight Star Era satellites will expand ADAspace’s constellation. Its Star Compute programme envisages a network of 2,800 AI-equipped spacecraft, designed to analyse Earth-observation data in orbit and transmit processed results to ground stations.

Two experimental Lanta Intelligence satellites will continue testing laser terminals for communications between spacecraft. The work supports the planned Aurora constellation. Two satellites had previously been launched for that project.

LandSpace developed the two-stage Zhuque-2E, which uses liquid oxygen and methane. Its stated capacity is up to six tonnes to a 200-kilometre low Earth orbit or four tonnes to a 500-kilometre sun-synchronous orbit.