China's Kuaizhou-11 solid-fuelled carrier rocket will send six satellites into space in its first mission, according to the rocket's developer and producer China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp (CASIC).
The company announced the news Wednesday at the Third China (International) Commercial Aerospace Forum in Wuhan, capital of central China's Hubei Province.
The Kuaizhou-11 rocket will be launched via a mobile launch vehicle. With a lift-off mass of 78 tonnes, the rocket was designed to launch low-Earth and Sun- synchronous orbit satellites.
Kuaizhou, which is Chinese for fast ship, is a low-cost solid-fuelled carrier rocket with high reliability and a short preparation period.
Globally, the launch cost of small commercial carrier rockets usually ranges from 25,000 to 40,000 U.S. dollars per kilogram of payload, according to a CASIC spokesperson.
The spokesperson said Kuaizhou rockets are price competitive. The launch cost of the Kuaizhou-1A was less than 20,000 U.S. dollars per kg of payload, while Kuaizhou-11 rocket is less than 10,000 U.S. dollars.
In January, the Kuaizhou-1A rocket sent three satellites into space in its first commercial mission.
