China conducts 4 launches in 3 days, but silence follows Kuaizhou–11 launch

VENICE, Italy — China continued its accelerated launch pace with a series of missions, but long silence followed liftoff of a Kuaizhou-11 solid rocket Wednesday, suggesting potential issues.

The Kuaizhou-11 solid rocket lifted off at around 11:40 p.m. (0340 UTC) from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert. While Chinese social media posts indicated launch had occurred, silence followed for a number of hours. Such silence usually presages a launch failure, or problems with one or more payloads. At time of reporting, more than eight hours had passed since liftoff without official word on the mission.

The Kuaizhou-11 is a larger version of Expace’s Kuaizhou-1A. Its first launch in July 2020 ended in failure. It launched three times successfully since then, most recently a rideshare mission in March this year. A launch failure, if confirmed, would not have a profound impact on China’s launch plans, given Expace’s supplementary role in the country’s launch capabilities.

The Kuaizhou-11 mission followed shortly after a Long March 12 expendable rocket launch at 10:44 p.m. Eastern (0244 UTC, June 17) from Hainan Commercial Space Launch Site. The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) confirmed launch success, describing the payloads as the 22nd group of satellite internet low-Earth orbit satellites, correlating to the national Guowang broadband constellation.

Four previous Long March 12 launches carried nine satellites each for Guowang. Based on this pattern, there are now 177 Guowang satellites in orbit for the 13,000-satellite program.

The Long March 12 has now launched six times, with its debut flight in November 2024, and uses a horizontal assembly, test, and transport processing mode. It is rated for at least 12,000 kilograms to low Earth orbit (LEO) and 6,000 kg to 700-km sun-synchronous orbit (SSO).

Prior to the June 17 launches, a Long March 3B lifted off at 5: 45 a.m. (0945 UTC) Tuesday, June 16, this time from Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China.

CASC confirmed the success of the launch, revealing the payload to be Shijian-31. The satellite will be “mainly used for space environment exploration,” according to CASC, with no further information provided on the spacecraft and its mission, as is typical for the Shijian satellites. The Shijian series is often associated with experimental and demonstration missions, including on-orbit refueling tests.

The launch was a return-to-flight for the Long March 3B, a workhorse for launches to geostationary transfer orbit, which suffered a failure Jan. 16 followin