Nation kicks off busiest year for launches

China Daily has learned that all of the 40-odd planned missions will be carried out by the conglomerate's Long March-series rockets, the nation's backbone rocket fleet, and do not include those to be made by the company's newly developed Smart Dragon solid-propellant rockets.

This means the space magnate's actual launch number this year will be even bigger.

At least four of the company's new rockets－the Long March 5B, Long March 7A, Long March 8 and Smart Dragon 2－are scheduled to conduct their maiden missions this year, according to China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp.

Another State-owned giant－China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp－has plans for at least eight launch missions using its Kuaizhou carrier rockets.

Kuaizhou 11, a new type in the Kuaizhou family, will make its debut flight this year and will become the biggest and most powerful solid-propellant rocket in China.

Moreover, several private rocket companies have announced plans to launch missions this year with their own rockets.

China became the world's most frequent user of carrier rockets in 2018, and in 2019 had 32 successful orbital launches and two failures.