Kaituozhe-1 (KT-1)

Kaituozhe-1 (KT-1)

The Kaituozhe-1 (KT-1) launcher was a small, solid fueled launch vehicle, which was based on the road mobile DF-21 IRBM with an additional upper stage.

KT-1 was developed by China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASIC).

It has the capability to launch a small 100 kg into a low earth orbit. Possibly it is also the launch vehicle for the chinese ASAT system, which was tested against an old chinese weather satellite in 2007.

The Kaituozhe-1 launcher appears to have been cancelled after two unsuccessful launches. A third and fourth launch have been rumored, but are not confirmed.

Version Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3 Stage 4
KT-1 ? ? SpaB-100 SpaB-65
Performance (kg) LEO LPEO SSO GTO GEO MolO IP
KT-1 100 - - - -
No:   Type:             Date             LS         Payload

 1    Kaituozhe-1       15.09.2002   F   TY         PS 1 ?
 2    Kaituozhe-1       16.09.2003   F   TY         PS 2


Launch sites:

TY  =    Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center (TSLC), Wuzhai, Shanxi, China   China


Failures:

Flight 1: reportedly stage 2 failed
Flight 2: possibly stage 4 underperformed

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