LandSpace rocket puts 10 satellites in orbit for China's Star Compute network

On October 14, 2026, a LandSpace Zhuque-2E Y4 rocket lifted off at 19:40 Beijing time from the Dongfeng Commercial Space Innovation Pilot Zone in northwest China and deployed 10 satellites into a dawn-dusk sun-synchronous orbit. Eight of the spacecraft belong to the Star Compute (Xingsuan) orbital computing constellation built by the Chinese commercial satellite company ADA Space, and the other two are laser-communication test satellites. Xinhua reported on October 14 that the flight test mission was declared a complete success and that all 10 satellites reached their preset orbits.

The flight is the second deployment for Star Compute. ADA Space, based in Chengdu and also known as Chengdu Guoxing Aerospace Technology Co., Ltd., launched the program's first group of 12 satellites in May 2025, and the eight new spacecraft bring the working constellation to 20 satellites. The satellites carry high-performance computing payloads, high-speed laser communication systems for inter-satellite and satellite-to-ground links, and low-light cameras, turning the fleet into something closer to a distributed data center than a conventional imaging network. In January 2026 the company said it had deployed Alibaba's Qwen3 large language model at its first space-based computing center, with questions sent from Earth processed on the satellites and results returned to ground stations in about two minutes.

LandSpace's rocket used a methane-liquid-oxygen propellant combination, according to Xinhua, and the mission was billed as the tenth flight of the Zhuque-2 series and the fourth Zhuque-2E flight of 2026. China Daily reported on October 14 that the Xingsuan program is being jointly developed with 108 domestic partners, including universities, research institutes, listed companies and investment firms. The company said on social media after the launch that it is advancing regularized commercial launch operations of the ZQ-2E and the engineering reuse verification of the ZhuQue-3.

Key Facts

China in Space reported on October 14 that the Zhuque-2E lifted off from Launch Area 96A at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center at 19:40 China Standard Time, which is 12:40 pm UTC, targeting sun-synchronous orbit. China Daily reported on October 14 that the rocket blasted off at 7:40 pm from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern China, while Xinhua reported the launch from the Dongfeng commercial space innovation pilot zone. The 10 spacecraft were placed in a dawn-dusk orbit, a special type of sun-synchronous orbit that keeps a satellite in near-continuous sunlight along the terminator, a geometry that suits solar-powered computing payloads.

CGTN reported on October 14 that the eight computing satellites carry high-performance computing payloads, high-speed laser communication systems linking satellites to one another and to the ground, and low-light cameras. The group will test several key technologies, including a liquid-cooling system at the 10-kilowatt scale, large deployable radiative-cooling wings, a laser communication network and foundation-model training in orbit. China Daily reported on October 14 that the same satellites will conduct in-orbit verification of liquid cooling fluid loops in the 10,000-watt class, ultra-large deployable radiative cooling wings and the in-orbit training of a large language model.

China in Space reported on October 14 that the eight computing satellites form Group-02 of the Three-Body Computing Constellation run by ADA Space and Zhejiang Lab, and that the spacecraft carry serial numbers 44 through 50 as well as 39. With the new arrivals, that constellation expands to 20 satellites. The satellites were shipped at the start of September to allow sufficient time for integration with the Zhuque-2E, and in the coming days they are expected to connect with the existing spacecraft to demonstrate expanded onboard compute, new laser communication links that can connect to the ground, and unfurlable cooling radiators.

The two other spacecraft are communications test satellites designated Guangchuan-03 and Guangchuan-04 from Laser Starcom, also known as Jiguang Xingtong, according to China in Space, which noted they build on a previous pair launched aboard the first Zhuque-2E in November 2024. CGTN reported on October 14 that the two laser-communication test satellites were developed by Lanta Intelligence. All 10 satellites entered their planned orbits. At full scale, China Daily reported on October 14, the Xingsuan constellation would comprise 2,400 satellites equipped with inference computing devices and 400 carrying training computing payloads, forming a network spanning land, sea, air and space with an inference computing capacity of 100,000 petaflops and a training computing capacity of 1 million petaflops.

Analysis

The headline number from this launch is 10 satellites, and the more consequential number is 20. Star Compute has now flown twice in roughly 17 months, and the second batch is explicitly a technology-verification group rather than a service-ready fleet. That ordering matters, because the hardest problems in orbital computing are not the processors but the heat, power and bandwidth around them. A rack of high-performance chips in a vacuum has no air to carry waste heat away, so the satellite must radiate it into space, and the 10-kilowatt class liquid-cooling loops and ultra-large deployable radiative-cooling wings tested here are the enabling hardware for anything ADA Space has promised at the 2,800-satellite scale.

What this really means is that China's commercial space sector is now competing on a different axis than launch cadence alone. LandSpace's job on October 14 was to deliver mass to a precise orbit, and the Zhuque-2E did so on its tenth series flight and fourth flight of 2026. ADA Space's job is to prove that a satellite can act as a processing node rather than a sensor platform. The two companies are testing complementary halves of the same thesis, and the pairing of a private launch vehicle with a private constellation operator is the arrangement that has drawn the most attention in China's commercial ecosystem.

The laser communication payloads are the quiet center of the mission. CGTN reported on October 14 that the new group will test a laser communication network linking satellites to one another and to the ground, and China in Space reported on October 14 that the two Guangchuan spacecraft continue a laser communications effort that began with a pair flown in November 2024. Optical links between satellites are what allow a distributed constellation to behave like one machine, because data does not have to come down to a ground station and go back up. Without them, a 2,800-satellite computing constellation would be 2,800 isolated computers. The January 2026 Qwen3 demonstration, in which questions sent from Earth were answered by an orbiting model within about two minutes, sets the benchmark that the new satellites must now beat at larger scale.

Why It Matters

AI computing demand on Earth is constrained by electricity, land, cooling water and grid connections. Putting inference hardware in a dawn-dusk orbit sidesteps all four, because the satellite sees near-continuous sunlight and radiates heat into deep space. The trade-off is that orbit is a hostile place for delicate electronics, and the hardware must survive thermal cycling, radiation and the impossibility of a service call. ADA Space's decision to verify liquid cooling, deployable radiators and laser links before building out a 2,800-satellite fleet is a recognition that physics, not software, is the gating item.

The mission also matters for the launch market. LandSpace flew the Zhuque-2E twice within about two months, following September's connectivity-constellation mission, and the company said on social media that it is advancing regularized commercial launch operations of the ZQ-2E and the engineering reuse verification of the ZhuQue-3. A reusable Zhuque-3 would change the economics of constellation build-out, and Star Compute, with 2,800 satellites in its published plan, is exactly the kind of anchor customer that would justify that investment.

For remote sensing and AI users, the practical effect of in-orbit processing is latency and bandwidth. A satellite that filters, classifies or summarizes data before downlinking needs fewer ground stations and less spectrum, and can return an answer in roughly two minutes rather than waiting for an orbital pass.

Next Up

The newly launched satellites will spend the coming days connecting to the existing Star Compute spacecraft to demonstrate expanded onboard compute, laser communication links to the ground and the unfurling of their cooling radiators. Results from those tests will shape the third batch. ADA Space has not published a date for that deployment, but its stated architecture of 2,400 inference satellites and 400 training satellites means the next batches must be considerably larger than eight spacecraft if the 2,800-satellite target is to be more than a long-term aspiration.

LandSpace, meanwhile, continues its transition from the expendable Zhuque-2 series to the reusable Zhuque-3. After the October 14 flight the company said it is working on regularized commercial launch operations for the ZQ-2E and on engineering reuse verification for the ZhuQue-3. With the Zhuque-2 series now at 10 flights and the Zhuque-2E at four in 2026 alone, the cadence suggests LandSpace is trying to prove reliability fast enough to win constellation contracts against domestic and international launch providers alike.