Tag: China
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China’s Long March 5 rocket poised for crucial return-to-flight launch
China’s third Long March 5 rocket rolled out to its launch pad Dec. 21 at the Wenchang space center on Hainan Island. Credit: Xinhua China’s Long March 5 rocket — the country’s most powerful launcher — is set for its third flight Friday on a critical validation mission after a core stage engine failure doomed…
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China launches environmental satellite built in cooperation with Brazil
The sixth in a series of environmental monitoring satellites jointly developed by China and Brazil successfully launched Dec. 20 on top of a Long March 4B rocket. The CBERS 4A Earth observation satellite rode the Long March 4B rocket into a 385-mile-high (620-kilometer) polar sun-synchronous orbit from the Taiyuan space base in northern China’s…
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China completes core of Beidou global satellite navigation system
A Long March 3B rocket lifts off Monday from the Xichang space base in southwestern China’s Sichuan province. Credit: CASC Two Chinese Beidou navigation satellites successfully launched Monday on top of a Long March 3B rocket, completing the core of China’s independent positioning and timing network ahead of the start of global service next year.…
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China nears global coverage with the latest launch of Beidou-3M satellites
With the launch Monday of a new pair of navigation satellites, China is one step nearer to achieving global coverage with its navigation satellite system. The launch of Beidou-3M19 (Beidou-52) and Beidou-3M20 (Beidou-53) took place at 07:22 UTC, lofted by the Long March-3BGZ/YZ-1 (Y67/Y15) from the LC3 Launch Complex at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center,…
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China launches two Kuaizhou rockets in six hours
A Kuaizhou 1A rocket lifts off Saturday from the Taiyuan space base with the Jilin 1 Gaofen 02B Earth-imaging satellite. This was the first of two Kuaizhou 1A rocket launches from Taiyuan in less than six hours. Credit: Xinhua Two solid-fueled Kuaizhou 1A rockets fired into orbit from the same spaceport in northern China Saturday,…
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China launches radar observation satellite
A Long March 4C rocket took off from the Taiyuan space center in northern China at 2352 (6:52 p.m. EST) Wednesday. Credit: Xinhua A new all-weather radar imaging satellite for China’s civilian-oriented fleet of Gaofen Earth observatories launched Wednesday aboard a Long March 4C rocket, according to Chinese state media. The Gaofen 12 radar surveillance…
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Long March 4C lofts Gaofen-12
China launched a new remote sensing satellite on November 27 from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center, Shanxi Province. Launch of Gaofen-12 took place at 23:52 UTC from the LC9 launch complex using the Long March-4C (Y24) – Chang Zheng-4C – rocket. The new Earth observation satellite is equipped with a high-resolution Earth observation system. It…
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China launches two more Beidou navigation satellites
A Long March 3B rocket lifted off at 0055 GMT (8:55 a.m. Beijing time) Saturday with two Beidou navigation satellites. Credit: Xinhua Maintaining a rapid-fire launch cadence to close out the year, China added two more Beidou satellites to its independent positioning, navigation and timing fleet Saturday with a successful launch aboard a Long March…
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Chinese bolster navigation system with dual Beidou launch
Nearing the completion of the global coverage of its navigation satellite system, China launched a new pair of navigation satellites on Saturday from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center, Sichuan province. The launch of Beidou-3M21 (Beidou-50) and Beidou-3M22 (Beidou-51) took place from the LC3 Launch Complex using a Long March-3BGZ/YZ-1 – Chang Zheng-3BGZ/YZ-1 – launch vehicle.…
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China’s Kuaizhou launcher flies for second time in four days
A Kuaizhou 1A rocket lifted off Sunday from the Jiuquan space center in northwestern China. Credit: Xinhua Demonstrating a quick turnaround launch capability, China launched a light-class, solid-fueled Kuaizhou 1A rocket Sunday, four days after the same type of satellite booster fired into orbit from the same launch pad. The four-stage Kuaizhou 1A booster delivered…