Naga-L, also called Naga-1, is a light

carrier rocket A launch vehicle or carrier rocket is a rocket designed to carry a payload (spacecraft or satellites) from the Earth's surface to outer space. Most launch vehicles operate from a launch pads, supported by a launch control center and syste ...

under development by the

China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology The China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT) is a major state-owned civilian and military space launch vehicle manufacturer in China and one of the major launch service providers in the world. CALT is a subsidiary of the larger China A ...

(CALT). It is designed to compete on the international market for

small-lift launch vehicle A small-lift launch vehicle is a rocket orbital launch vehicle that is capable of lifting or less (by NASA classification) or under (by Roscosmos classification) of payload into low Earth orbit (LEO). The next larger category consists of med ...

s. The project was unveiled on 14 October 2015 by Dr. Haoliang Yang during the 66th

International Astronautical Congress Every year, the International Astronautical Federation with the support of the International Academy of Astronautics and the International Institute of Space Law (IISL), holds the International Astronautical Congress (IAC) which is hosted by ...

in Jerusalem. A first launch was planned for 2017. In addition to its domestic

Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center (JSLC; also known as Shuangchengzi Missile Test Center; Launch Complex B2; formally Northwest Comprehensive Missile Testing Facility (); Base 20; 63600 Unit) is a Chinese space vehicle launch facility ( sp ...

in the Gobi desert, CALT is considering potential launches of Naga-L from spaceports in Sweden (

Esrange Esrange Space Center (short form Esrange) is a rocket range and research centre located about 40 kilometers east of the town of Kiruna in northern Sweden. It is a base for scientific research with high-altitude balloons, investigation of the au ...

), Indonesia (

Pameungpeuk Pameungpeuk is a small town near the coast of southwestern Java, Indonesia. It is located 131 kilometres by road south of Bandung. Geography The town is located several kilometres to the southeast of the small settlement of Cikelet, although it ...

) and Tanzania. Due to

ITAR International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) is a United States regulatory regime to restrict and control the export of defense and military related technologies to safeguard U.S. national security and further U.S. foreign policy objectiv ...

restrictions imposed by the United States which limit the distribution of US manufactured components with military applications, China can't import US produced satellites to its own territory, which prevents their Long March rockets from competing in the worldwide commercial launch services market. Naga-L would bypass these constraints by exporting the rockets instead of importing the satellites. Using components from the

Long March rocket family Long may refer to: Measurement * Long, characteristic of something of great duration * Long, characteristic of something of great length * Longitude (abbreviation: long.), a geographic coordinate * Longa (music), note value in early music mens ...

, notably the

YF-75 The YF-75 is a liquid cryogenic rocket engine burning liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen in a gas generator cycle. It is China's second generation of cryogenic propellant engine, after the YF-73, which it replaced. It is used in a dual engin ...

and

YF-100 The YF-100 is a Chinese liquid rocket engine burning LOX and kerosene in an oxidizer-rich staged combustion cycle. Development of the engine began in the 2000s, along with its sibling, the smaller YF-115, which would power the LM-6 and LM-7 ...

engines, Naga-L could deliver up to to a circular

low Earth orbit A low Earth orbit (LEO) is an orbit around Earth with a period of 128 minutes or less (making at least 11.25 orbits per day) and an eccentricity less than 0.25. Most of the artificial objects in outer space are in LEO, with an altitude never mor ...

from Lapan and to a 400-km Sun-synchronous orbit from Esrange or Jiuquan. Pricing would start at $10 million per mission.

References

Space launch vehicles of China Proposed space launch vehicles {{rocket-stub