The Long March-6C carrier rocket and its launch configuration house multiple payloads. /CASC
China finished its first auction for a Long March rocket to Chinese commercial satellites via an open auction system on Thursday, according to the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC).
Initiated by the China Great Wall Industry Corporation under the CASC, the bid was won by a private tech company in Suzhou City, east China's Jiangsu Province, with a price of 80,000 yuan ($11,202) per kilogram.
The company's satellite will be launched aboard the Long March-6, a two-stage liquid-fueled carrier rocket that uses liquid oxygen and kerosene as a propellant, into orbit from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in north China's Shanxi Province.
The satellites for the auction were limited to remote sensing and the launch window will be at the end of this year.
"Basically, the price is more than 100,000 ($14,003) yuan per kilogram, and we saved an average of over 20,000 ($2,800) yuan per kilogram," Tang Mingming, general manager of the Suzhou Yanhang Technology Co., Ltd., told the Beijing Radio and Television Station.
Tang said the company will verify the limit of a thruster in orbit, and the total weight of the satellite is designed between 10 and 20 kilograms.
Ding Jie from the China Great Wall Industry Corporation said that such "carpooling" can provide launch services that are highly reliable and cost-effective with high-quality.
The auction is a brand-new attempt for digital marketing of commercial aerospace, and it broadened the development model of the commercial launch market for the Long March rockets, according to the China Great Wall Corporation.
China's commercial aerospace has been growing at a rate of 20 percent per year since 2015, with the ride-share launches model set to take place twice a year.
Read more: Sharing Rockets: China opens first auction for Long March 'carpooling'