Tag: China
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China launches environmental monitoring satellites
A Long March 4B rocket lifts off Sunday with two Chinese environmental monitoring satellites. Credit: Xinhua Without any public warning, a Chinese Long March 4B rocket lifted off Sunday with two “environmental monitoring satellites” that the country’s state media said will replace a pair of spacecraft launched in 2008 that collected data to assist in a…
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Suprise Chinese launch lofts Huanjing duo
In a surprise launch, China orbited two environmental and disaster management satellites from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center on early Sunday. Huanjing-2A (HJ-2A) and Huanjing-2B (HJ-2B) were launched from the LC9 Launch Complex at 03:23UTC using the Long March-4B – Chang Zheng-4B – (Y42) rocket. Developed by the China Academy of Space Technology (CAST), the…
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China launches Haiyang oceanography satellite
A Long March 4B rocket lifts off Sept. 21 from the Jiuquan launch base in northwestern China. Credit: Xinhua A Chinese oceanography satellite designed to measure wave height and winds launched Monday aboard a Long March 4B rocket equipped with grid fins to help control the first stage’s descent back to Earth, an improvement aimed…
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China successfully launches satellites from ocean-going platform
A Long March 11 rocket climbs away from a platform in the Yellow Sea on Tuesday. Credit: Xinhua A solid-fueled Long March 11 launcher delivered nine small Chinese Earth observation satellites to orbit Tuesday after firing off a ship positioned in the Yellow Sea. The four-stage rocket blasted off from the De Bo 3 launch…
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China bounces back with Long March 11 launch of nine satellites
Three days after losing a high-resolution remote sensing satellite due to an apparent problem with its upper stage, China launched nine new satellites for the Jilin-1 remote sensing constellation from a barge out at sea. Launch of the nine Jilin-1 Gaofen-03 satellites took place at 01:23 UTC on Tuesday using the Long March-11H (Y2) rocket.…
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Chinese smallsat launcher fails
A Kuaizhou 1A rocket takes off Saturday from the Jiuquan launch base. Credit: CASIC A Chinese small satellite launcher failed after liftoff Saturday, destroying a commercial Earth-imaging payload before it could enter orbit. The Kuaizhou 1A rocket carrying the Jilin 1 Gaofen 02C optical remote sensing satellite lifted off from the Jiuquan space base in…
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China tests experimental reusable spacecraft shrouded in mystery
File photo of a previous Long March 2F launch. Credit: Xinhua A mysterious space vehicle described by Chinese state media as an experimental reusable spacecraft completed a two-day flight in low Earth orbit Sunday. The spacecraft took off on top of a Long March 2F rocket Friday from the Jiuquan launch base in the Gobi…
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China launches another Gaofen Earth observation satellite
A new optical Earth observation satellite launched by China Monday joins the country’s remote sensing network for land surveys, urban planning, and agriculture monitoring. The Gaofen 11-02 remote sensing satellite lifted off at 0557 GMT (1:57 a.m. EDT) Monday from the Taiyuan launch base in northern China aboard a Long March 4B rocket. The 154-foot-tall…
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Long March 4B lofts Gaofen-11 (02)
Following the successful launch and return of its recoverable experimental spaceplane, China launched another remote sensing satellite on September 7, 2020, from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center. Launch of the Gaofen-11 (02) took place at 05:57 UTC from the LC9 Launch Complex using the Long March-4B – Chang Zheng-4B – Y46 rocket. The second Gaofen-11…
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Mars missions complete first course corrections on journey to Red Planet
This illustration from NASA’s “Eyes on the Solar System” app shows the Mars 2020 spacecraft outbound from planet Earth. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech Three robotic Mars missions launched from Earth last month have begun fine-tuning their trajectories through the solar system with the first in a series mid-course corrections to take aim on the Red Planet for…