China successfully launched a new remote-sensing satellite group into orbit from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Sichuan Province from the Long March-2C carrier rocket. The satellites were a part of the Yaogan-30 family.
The satellites will carry out electromagnetic environment detection and relevant technological verification in a multi-satellite network, according to China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC).
The Tianqi-15, a satellite of the Tianqi constellation, was also aboard the rocket. It is mainly purposed for data collection for IoT according CASC.
Developed by the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology under CASC, the Long March-2C rocket is a liquid-fueled launch vehicle with a total length of 43 meters. It has a takeoff mass of 242 tons and can lift up to 2 tons to a sun-synchronous orbit at an altitude of 500 kilometers.
According to Xing Jianwei, vice chief designer of the Long March-2C, the rocket had sent all the 10 groups of the Yaogan-30 satellites into the preset orbit with high precision in the four years since the launch of the first group in 2017. Xing added that 100 percent success rate of the rocket was a testimony to its high reliability.
The launch was the 77th flight mission of the Long March-2C rockets and the 380th of the Long March rocket series.
