Private firm launches world's mightiest solid-fueled rocket

Orienspace, a private Chinese rocket maker, successfully launched a Gravity 1 carrier rocket on Saturday morning, marking the second flight of the world's biggest and mightiest solid-propellant rocket.

The 30-meter-tall rocket blasted off at 10:20 am from a launch service ship off the coast of Haiyang in Shandong province and soon placed its payloads — an optical remote-sensing satellite and two experimental satellites — into their preset orbital positions.

The mission marked the second flight of the Gravity 1, which made its debut launch from the same site in January 2024.

Xu Guoguang, chief designer and project manager of Gravity 1, said the second flight aimed to further verify the rocket's reliability and capability, its pre-launch preparations and the launch sequence, as well as demonstrate its ability to handle multiple flight trajectories.