China Launches 22 Satellites in "One Arrow, 22 Stars" Miss

CZ-8 Launches "One Arrow, 22 Stars"

On Saturday, February 26 at 10:06pm ET (3:06 UTC on February 27), CNSA launched the "One Arrow, 22 Stars" mission with 22 rideshare satellites atop a Long March (Chang Zheng) 8 rocket from LC-201 at the Wenchang Satellite Launch Center in China. This was the 2nd launch of the Long March 8 rocket, this time without solid rocket boosters. In the future, China plans to reuse the first stage of Long March 8 with a propulsive landing, similarly to what SpaceX does with the Falcon 9 rocket. All 22 satellites launched were put in a sun-synchronous orbit. 10 of the satellites were part of the Jilin-1 Earth observation satellite constellation which aims to have 138 satellites by 2030. The mission also included four Hainan satellites, which are satellites built to observe the South China Sea. Also launched was a tiny satellite named Venstar, built by the Wuhan University to demonstrate "low cost, quick build, and flexibility". The 7 other satellites are Tianxan satellites built by the company Spacety. This was the 20th orbital launch attempt of 2022.