CASC launches Tianlian III-01 data relay satellite on Long March-7A
A Long March-7A rocket carried China's Tianlian III-01 relay satellite into orbit from Wenchang, per Xinhua.
what happened
China launched the Tianlian III-01 data relay satellite aboard a Long March-7A rocket from the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site at 7:50 p.m. Beijing time on July 29, per Xinhua. The satellite will provide data relay and telemetry, tracking and command services for crewed spacecraft, space laboratories, the space station, and medium- and low-Earth-orbit resource satellites; the launch was the 659th Long March mission overall, per Xinhua. Launch Library's mission record lists Tianlian III-01 as the first satellite of China's third-generation geostationary data relay system, succeeding the Tianlian II series.
why it matters
Tianlian is China's TDRS-equivalent relay backbone for Tiangong and Long March missions; a new generation entering service extends the ground-station-independent communications capacity that Chinese crewed and commercial launches depend on, distinct from the routine Tianlian II cadence already running.
signal-to-noise
quick facts
- Companies
- CASC
- Category
- launch
- Impact
- notable
- SNR
- 5 / 5
- Event date
- 2026-07-29
- Published
- 2026-07-29 17:26 UTC