Chinese firm scores a win in smallsat-launch competition

Enlarge / Satellogic satellites being prepared for launch. (credit: Satellogic)
China’s new Long March 6 rocket has won a major commercial launch contract, with an agreement for up to six flights over two years to deploy 90 small remote sensing satellites for Argentina-based Satellogic.
The contract—which will allow Satellogic to deploy a constellation capable of imaging the entire planet at a 1-meter resolution on a weekly basis—is significant in that it comes at a time of increasing competition in the small-satellite launch market. Satellogic and the China Great Wall Industry Corporation (or CGWIC), which sells Chinese government launch services on the commercial market, did not disclose terms of the agreement.
However, the Chinese launch marketer made clear that this is an important milestone for its Long March 6 (or LM-6) rocket. 'Satellogic's constellation will introduce a new era of affordable Earth observation just as the LM-6 will open new opportunities for the global space industry,' Gao Ruofei, executive vice president of CGWIC, said in a statement.
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