In China, a Long March 11 light rocket was launched from a launch pad located in the Yellow Sea, which can be called a clone of the Russian Sea Launch, TASS reports.
According to the agency, citing the Chinese press, the carrier launched nine satellites into space, which are planned to be used for highly detailed imaging of the Earth's surface.
The first launch of the Long March 11 light rocket from the launch pad located in the Yellow Sea took place in June 2019. Then the carrier put seven satellites into near-earth orbit. Among them, in particular, there is one spacecraft designed to predict the occurrence of typhoons, and two to provide communications.
In July 2015, it was reported that the Chinese authorities had expressed interest in purchasing the Sea Launch floating spaceport and command vessel.
The Long March 11 four-stage rocket is designed to launch up to 700 kilograms of payloads into low-earth orbit. The first launch of the carrier based on the Dong Feng 31 intercontinental ballistic missile took place in September 2015.
Previously, launches from an offshore platform were offered exclusively by Russia. Within the framework of the Sea Launch project, the three-stage (including the DM-SL upper stage) medium-heavy Zenit-3SL rocket launched from the equatorial region is capable of delivering no more than 6.1 tons of payloads to the geosynchronous transfer orbit. At present, the launches of this launch vehicle, which is mass-produced in Ukraine, have been frozen, and instead it is proposed to use the Soyuz-5 (Irtysh) rocket being created in Russia or one of its possible modifications.
