At 11:14 January 15, 2023 BJT, Long March-2D (LM-2D) Launch Vehicle blasted off from Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center (TSLC), deploying 14 satellites into the pre-determined orbit, namely QILU-2, QILU-3, Luojia-3 01 Satellite, JILIN-1GF03D34, TJHaiHe01, WoFuMan01, JILIN-1MF02A03, JILIN-1MF02A04, JILIN-1MF02A07, BUPT-1, Golden Bauhinia N6 Satellite, Golden Bauhinia N3 Satellite, Golden Bauhinia N4 Satellite and Tianzhi-2D. It is a complete success of the third commercial rideshare mission of China Great Wall Industry Corporation (CGWIC), a subsidiary of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC).

QILU-2 and QILU-3 are owned by Shandong Institutes of Industrial Technology, developed by Innovation Academy for Microsatellites of CAS. QILU-2 is a high-resolution optical satellite, while QILU-3 is a wide swath optical satellite, both carrying optical remote sensing payloads. They are mainly used for earth observation in the fields of land and resources, agriculture and forestry, environment monitoring, transportation, disaster prevention and mitigation, etc., serving the development of the space information industry in Shandong Province. Meanwhile, the satellites can perform inter-satellites laser communication task with the in-orbit QILU-1.

The 12 other rideshare satellites in this commercial mission were designed and developed by eight (8) entities, and the customers are from seven (7) domestic commercial aerospace enterprises and scientific research institutions.

LM-2D is a two-stage liquid launch vehicle developed by Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology (SAST), also a subsidiary of CASC. It is designed for low earth orbit and sun synchronous orbit missions, with the capacity of 1300kg for 700km SSO，and has already successfully performed 74 flights.

CGWIC is a commercial organization authorized by the Chinese government to provide commercial launch services, satellite systems and to carry out space technology cooperation, with more than 40 years of experience and a professional team. Under the guidance of CASC, CGWIC can provide fast, stable and reliable "one-stop" quality services to both international and domestic customers.Since the year of 2020, CGWIC has promoted “Rideshare Launch Vehicle” to provide highly reliable and cost-effective launch services to various satellites of different customers in the way of commercial rideshare mode. In the year of 2022, CGWIC completed eight launches and one piggyback launch, including one LM-8 " Rideshare Launch Vehicle " flight and two In-Orbit Delivery missions, sending a total of 69 satellites into space.

Since the Long March series of launch vehicles entered the international market in 1990, CGWIC has completed 75 commercial launch missions for 69 international and 70 domestic satellites. In addition, CGWIC has conducted 45 rideshare missions, sending 27 international payloads and 116 domestic payloads into orbits.

This mission marks the 462nd flight of the Long March fleet.

Date:2023-01-15