China continues to upgrade multi-satellite separation system of carrier rocket

China has continuously upgraded its multi-satellite separation system of the Lijian-1 carrier rocket, said Shi Xiaoning, chief designer of the Lijian-1 Y5 rocket from CAS Space, a Beijing-based rocket maker.

The country on Monday launched the Lijian-1 Y5 commercial carrier rocket with 15 satellites onboard.

The rocket blasted off at 12:03 (Beijing Time) from a commercial aerospace innovation pilot zone in northwest China, and sent the 15 satellites, including the Jilin-1 Gaofen series, Yunyao-1 series, Xiguang-1 series, and a remote-sensing satellite launched for Oman, into their planned orbits. The launch marked the fifth flight mission of the Lijian-1 carrier rocket series.

Multi-satellite launch, which sends a number of satellites into orbit in a single launch, is a highly demanding technology that has been mastered only by a few countries.

With the continuous development of satellite technology in China, especially in the field of civilian satellites, the trend of batch launching of small satellites and forming constellations in space is gradually becoming mainstream. This type of multi-satellite launch places high demands on the separation of the satellites and the rocket.

"For this multi-satellite launch mission, we have added a satellite-rocket separation control unit and a satellite-rocket separation resistor box, which can provide more separation timing sequence and separation collection capabilities, enabling better adaptation of our control system to such multiple satellite launch missions," he said.

The chief designer also introduced that the upgraded technology used together with a large-diameter fairing can carry out the mission of launching over 50 satellites at once in the future, contributing to the subsequent construction of China's large-scale low-orbit satellite internet.

"Due to the increasing demand for stacked launch, including multi-satellite missions, it can adapt to more launch missions in the future, such as launching 18 or 36 satellites on a carrier rocket," he said.

China continues to upgrade multi-satellite separation system of carrier rocket

The Philippines' trick to play victim and confuse the international community over the South China Sea issue will not get anywhere, Defense Ministry spokesman Zhang Xiaogang said at a press conference in Beijing on Thursday.

Zhang made the remarks in response to the Philippine Coast Guard accusation of China of using large vessels to intimidate smaller Philippine ships.

"China has indisputable sovereignty over the South China Sea Islands and their adjacent waters. The maritime disputes between China and the Philippines are not a matter of size as who is big and who is small, but a matter of right and wrong. The Philippine side has repeatedly organized coast guard vessels and fishing boats to infringe upon China's territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests, endanger peace and stability in the South China Sea, and attempt to play a pathetic game to gain sympathy and confuse the international public opinion. This is doomed to fail. We advise the Philippine side to immediately change course and return to the right track of resolving the issue with China through negotiation and consultation," Zhang said.

Defense Ministry spokesman dismisses Philippines' victim playing trick