OMM Newsroom
China launched 10 satellites aboard a “Zhuque-2E” Y4 carrier rocket on Wednesday, including eight intended to advance artificial intelligence computing in orbit, according to state-run Xinhua News Agency.
The rocket lifted off at 7:40 p.m. local time (1140 GMT) from the Dongfeng commercial space innovation pilot zone in northwestern China. All 10 satellites reached their designated orbits, Xinhua reported.
Eight satellites to test orbital computing technologies
The eight spacecraft are part of the second group in the “Star Compute” project, developed by Chinese commercial aerospace company “ADAspace”. They are designed to operate in dawn-dusk orbits and carry high-performance computing systems, laser communication equipment and low-light cameras.
The satellites will test technologies including 10,000-watt liquid-cooling systems, large deployable cooling structures, space-based laser communication networks and the training of AI foundation models directly in orbit.
“ADAspace” said the mission would help speed up the development and commercial use of space-based computing.
Company plans a 2,800-satellite network
The company plans to build an orbital AI infrastructure network comprising 2,800 computing satellites. Its first group of 12 satellites was launched in May 2025.
In January, “ADAspace” announced that it had deployed Alibaba’s “Qwen3” AI model aboard its orbital computing network, allowing AI processing to take place directly in space.
The company aims to establish a 1,000-satellite network by 2030 and complete the larger constellation by 2035.
