A rocket developed by Chinese company iSpace blasted into space Wednesday carrying three miniature satellites in another milestone for the country's budding private spaceflight industry. Reports said the SQX-1Z rocket took off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern China and entered space at a suborbital level. Two of the satellites will be released into space for testing while the third will re-enter the atmosphere and parachute down to Earth. It was believed to be the first time a private Chinese company had carried satellites into space. Founded in 2016, iSpace is develops "high-quality, low-cost, fast-responding" commercial launchers to serve micro-satellite manufacturers, operators, research institutes and universities at home and abroad, according to a company statement. China's space program has traditionally been run by the military, but a number of commercial satellite launchers have also sprung up in recent years, modeled on private U.S. companies such as SpaceX and Blue Origin. In May, Beijing-based OneSpace Technologies became the first private Chinese spaceflight company to send a rocket into space, launching its relatively modest 9-meter (30-foot) OS-X for a test flight that ended with it falling back to Earth. © 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. Citation: Private Chinese space company places satellites in orbit (2018, September 5) retrieved 14 April 2020 from https://phys.org/news/2018-09-private-chinese-space-company-satellites.html This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.
China 's iSpace has become the country 's first private company to carry a satellite into space , after its SQX-1Z rocket blasted off from the Beijing Satellite Launch Centre with a payload of three devices . Two of the devices are set to be released into space for testing , while the third will return to Earth . The launch comes after Beijing - based Phoenix Technologies became the first private firm to launch a rocket into space with the May test - flight of its Falcon - X device .