China Launches 18 "Thousand Sails" Internet Satellites Seventh Batch Reaches Orbit

China has successfully launched a Long March 8 rocket from the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site on Hainan Island, the launch took place at 9:32 PM Beijing time, successfully deploying 18 internet satellites into their designated orbits, marking the seventh batch for the "Thousand Sails" (Qianfan) constellation, "Thousand Sails" is Chinas first major commercial low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellite constellation, now in its formal network construction phase, the project aims to build a satellite internet system providing high-speed, secure, and reliable real-time integrated services connecting space, air, land, and sea, the system is designed to be built and operated independently by China, the project began in August 2024 with the launch of the first batch of satellites, by 2030 the plan is to establish a full-scale network consisting of more than 15,000 LEO satellites, the Long March 8 rocket used for this mission is part of the Long March 8 family, along with the Long March 8A these models have a payload capacity of 5 and 7 tons to Sun-synchronous orbit respectively, highlighting Chinas increased capabilities in deploying satellites to medium and low Earth orbits, a high-intensity schedule of Long March 8 launches is planned for this year, supporting the development of Chinas LEO satellite internet constellation and the growth of the countrys commercial space sector, a significant milestone of this mission was the performance of the meteorological system