AI Utilizing Spacecraft Brought to Orbit by CAS Space Rideshare [Kinetica-1 Y15]

Four out of five customer payloads delivered from Jiuquan have some form of artificial intelligence solutions for operational use or trials.

CAS Space’s Kinetica-1 Y15 vehicle lifting off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center on July 23rd/24th 2026. | Image: CAS Space

Off of Launch Area 130 at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, CAS Space’s Kinetica-1 blasted off at 07:33 am China Standard Time on July 24th (23:33 pm Universal Coordinated Time on July 23rd) to bring a handful of customer satellites into sun-synchronous orbit.

The customer of note for the launch was Orbital Chenguang (轨道辰光) with its Chenguang-1 (辰光一号卫星)¹ spacecraft that will be used to demonstrate thermal dissipation and electrical power management systems needed for space-based data centers. As part of the demonstration, artificial intelligence (AI) solutions are onboard to process remote sensing data captured by installed instruments. The spacecraft is the first in a methodical plan to prove the system ahead of deployment of gigawatt-class compute centers, which is backed by tens of billions of Yuan.²

An AI utilizing satellite delivered is the Gande-1-01 (甘德一号01星) space debris monitoring satellite from Liangxi Space Technology Group (梁溪空天科技集团) and Aotian Technology Beijing Co Ltd (遨天科技(北京)有限公司). To monitor orbits around it, Gande-1-01 has a wide-field and precision tracking camera that will pick human-made objects out from stars by processing them through its onboard AI model. The satellite is the first of a constellation to demonstrate relevant systems, with later satellites working in tandem for tracking and emergency alerts.

Alongside them is the 200-kilogram ‘Fuxi Meteorological Satellite (伏羲气象卫星)’, also designated Xiguang-2-03 (西光贰号03星), from Xinghuo Chuanming Beijing Technology Co Ltd (星火传明(北京)技术有限公司), able to perform infrared remote sensing tasks at resolutions between 1.28, 5, and 12.5 meters while processing data locally through onboard AI systems, beaming resuslts back at up to 100 gigabits per second via an optical laser link. It is also the first of up to two hundred and thirty such satellites to be proliferated by variants weighing as little as 8 kilograms.

‘Fuxi Meteorological Satellite’ during the late stages of production in a clean room. | Image: Xinghuo Chuanming Beijing Technology Co Ltd

From Zhejiang Lab (之江实验室), of the leading Three-Body Computing Constellation, was a technology development satellite designated Jitian-A-04 (吉天星A-04星) or Yunjian Muxi (云尖沐曦号). All satellite systems are stated to be equipped with relevant AI models to manage its health, systems planning, and requested tasks. Part of the requested tasks will be to trial new compute capabilities powered by GPUs from MetaX Integrated Circuits Shanghai Co Ltd (沐曦集成电路(上海)有限公司) ahead of their operational use on-orbit.

Finally, there is Yinglong Fengguang-1 (应龙风光一号卫星) built by Shanghai Xuntian Qianhe Space Technology (上海巡天千河空间技术有限公司) on behalf of Jiangsu Yinglong Satellite Technology (江苏应龙卫星科技有限公司), tasked with weather forecasting, early disaster warning, and environmental monitoring. That is to be done via a microwave temperature and humidity sounder alongside infrared cameras.

The Kinetica-1 Y15 vehicle departing from its launch pad and heading South on July 23rd/24th 2026. | Image: CAS Space

In support of future missions with Kinetica-1, CAS Space’s factory in Guangzhou (广州), Guangdong (广东) province, is accelerating production of the launch vehicle. The hardware used today passed its acceptance review, allowing it to be sent to Jiuquan, just two days after the vehicle’s previous flight on June 15th, and following its departure by under a month.

Should flight hardware be available at Jiuquan, CAS Space believes its teams can support a monthly mission cadence. That has been demonstrated this year with missions in April, May, the aforementioned June mission, and now today’s.

Today’s launch was the 15th launch for Kinetica-1, and the 16th for CAS Space through its Kinetica family of launch vehicles. This was also the 51st launch from China in 2026.

Liftoff video via 大漠问天 on WeChat.

Launch livestream via ThatSpaceDogeGuy on YouTube.

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Check out the previous Kinetica-1 launch

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What is Kinetica-1?

This section is for those less familiar with China’s various commercial launch vehicles.

Kinetica-1 is CAS Space’s first launch vehicle and consists of four stages, all burning solid fuel. CAS Space offers the ability to launch a single satellite to utilize all of the rocket’s payload capacity, however more ‘rideshare’ missions occur for multiple satellites to be delivered in one launch.

The payload capacity of the launch vehicle is currently as follows:

• 2,000 kilograms to low Earth orbit

• 1,500 kilograms to a 500-kilometer sun-synchronous orbit

The Kinetica-1 Y15 vehicle stood at Launch Area 130 ahead of its mission on July 23rd/24th 2026. | Image: CAS Space

The first-stage is powered by a solid rocket booster that burns an unspecified solid fuel, generating 200 tons of thrust. The second-stage is also powered by a solid rocket booster, producing 110 tons of thrust with the same unidentified propellant. The-third stage, also using the undisclosed propellant, generates 45 tons of thrust. Finally, the fourth-stage is powered by another solid rocket booster, providing 8 tons of thrust with the same solid propellant.

On its launch pad, Kinetica-1 stands at 30 meters tall. The first two stages have a diameter of 2.65 meters, the fairing has a diameter of either 2.65 or 3.35 meters. When prepared for launch Kinetica-1 weighs a believed 135,000 kilograms.

So far, Kinetica-1 has flown all of its missions from CAS Space’s launch facility at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center.

The Kinetica-1 Y15 vehicle during production efforts at CAS Space's Guangzhou factory. | Image: CAS Space

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1. It is alternatively designated as Tianyi-48 (天仪48) due to support from SpaceTY (天仪研究院).

2. If successfully proven, Orbital Chenguang would be second in China’s space-based compute efforts to ADA Space (国星宇航), who have the operational Three-Body Computing Constellation. China as a nation is currently the leader in the field, with technical working groups supporting enterprises pursuing the related technology.