A Smart Dragon-3 (SD-3) rocket lifted off on Wednesday in east China's Shandong Province, sending satellites into a preset orbit.

The rocket blasted off from the sea at 3:56 p.m. (Beijing Time) near the city of Rizhao. The Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center conducted the offshore launch mission.

The rocket also carried a test satellite into space during the flight mission, the launch center said.

The SD-3 is part of China's Dragon rocket family, which has been developed specifically to meet the growing market demand for the launch of small, commercial low-orbit satellites and satellite networks. It is capable of sending a payload of 1.5 tonnes into sun-synchronous orbit at an altitude of 500 kilometers.

Wednesday was the eighth flight mission to use an SD-3 rocket, according to the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology, the rocket's maker.

Onboard payloads included 11 satellites of the Geely-06 Constellation. Owned by Geespace, which is a private satellite maker and a subsidiary of Geely Holding Group based in Hangzhou, the Geely constellation focuses on satellite Internet of Things (IoT) operations.

The company said that it had already deployed 64 satellites in orbit via six consecutive launches conducted between 2022 and 2025.