Space News reported on September 30 that the 10th Thap Yen satellite was launched into space by the Truong Chinh 3B rocket, taking off from the Zhuang Satellite Launching Center in southwestern China at around 4:20 p.m. on September 27.
The tangshan 10 satellite launch was the second such launch to China's orbit during the day. Previously, the Khoi Chau 1A rocket (Kuaizhou-1A) carrying the Cat Lam 1 Cao Phan 02D satellite (Jilin-1 Gaofen 02D) took off from the Zhu Zhen Satellite Launch Center in northwest China at 2:19 p.m. local time. The satellite was then successfully put into orbit.
On September 28, China issued a statement confirming the incident of the Thap Yen 10 satellite, saying that the satellite did not operate as expected and had broken after successfully launching it a day earlier.
Shortly after the satellite was launched on September 27, "a ray of light in the night sky" was spotted in New South Wales, Australia and spread on Twitter. This bright spot may have been due to the upper layer of the Truong Chinh 3B missile burning at that time, suggesting the missile operated normally during the launch.
Before launching, the name and purpose of the cargo of the Truong Chinh 3B missile were not confirmed. However, data from the US Space Force shows that the payload of this launch targeted a synchronous ground orbit around the Earth. A few hours after launch, an object believed to be a Thap Yen 10 satellite successfully separated from the top layer of the missile.
While the Truong Chinh 3B missile was confirmed to be still operating normally, the Thap Yen 10 satellite encountered unusual operating conditions during the launch and was declared damaged on September 28.
China's Khoi Chau 1A rocket also resumed operation on September 27, marking the rocket's first flight since it failed to put the Cat Lam 1 Cao Phan 02C satellite into orbit in September 2020. This time, the missile successfully put Cat Lam 1 Cao Phan 02D satellite into orbit.
Cat Lam 1 Cao Phan 02D is a high-resolution Earth observation satellite and part of the Cat Lam-1 star cluster, consisting of 138 high-performance optical exploration satellites of China.
The two launches on September 27 were China's 35th and 36th launches in 2021. The launches were conducted by the China Space Science and Technology Corporation (CASC). The CASC is targeting more than 40 targets this year.
