Chinese rocket shrugs off a lightning strike and delivers its relay satellite

A Long March 3B was hit by lightning 30 seconds after liftoff on July 23 and still reached orbit, one of two Chinese launches that day.

China ran two orbital launches on July 23, 2026, according to the fact sheet. A Long March 3B lifted off at 8:00 a.m. Eastern from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center and, per amateur footage shared on Chinese social media, was struck by lightning about 30 seconds into flight. The rocket still delivered the Tianlian-2 (06) relay satellite to geostationary transfer orbit. CASC declared the mission a complete success and did not mention the lightning.

The Tianlian-2 satellite, built by CASC's China Academy of Space Technology, is part of a relay network that provides communications and tracking for crewed spacecraft and the Tiangong space station. Later the same day, a Kinetica-1 solid rocket lifted off from Jiuquan at 7:33 p.m. Eastern carrying five satellites, including Gande-1, described as China's first commercial space debris monitoring satellite. These were China's 50th and 51st orbital launch attempts of 2026, against a stated target of more than 100 for the year.

Reliable, cheap access to orbit is what makes space-based communication and monitoring broadly available rather than scarce. A vehicle that survives a lightning strike and completes its mission points to margin built into the hardware — the kind of robustness that keeps launch cadence high and costs predictable.

Watch whether China hits its 100-plus launch goal; the pace so far tracks toward it. Caveats: the lightning footage is amateur and unconfirmed by officials, and the monthly-launch ambitions cited are stated intentions rather than demonstrated schedules.

Source: SpaceNews