Posted: Sun, Jul 26, 2026, 7:26 AM ET (1126 GMT)
A Long March 3B successfully launched a data relay satellite despite being struck by lightning during its ascent. The Long March 3B lifted off at 8 am EDT (1200 GMT) Thursday from Xichang Satellite Launch Center. Amateur video shows the rocket being hit by lightning about 30 seconds after liftoff, but the rocket continued to fly and successfully delivered the Tianlian-2 (06) relay satellite to a geostationary transfer orbit. Separately, a Kinetica-1 (Lijian-1) launched at 7:33 pm EDT (2233 GMT) Thursday from the Dongfeng Commercial Aerospace Innovation Test Zone at the Jiuquan spaceport. The small solid-fuel rocket placed into orbit five satellites for various customers.

Related Links:

•  SpaceNews article
•  Space.com article
•  Xinhua article on Long March 3B launch
•  Xinhua article on Kinetica-1 article