China launched its most advanced remote sensing satellite, Gaofen 9, from the Jiuquan (jo-chen) Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert on Monday. The satellite will provide sub-meter class resolution images for civilian purposes. These include land survey, urban planning, road network design, agriculture, and disaster relief. The lift-off of Gaofen 9 marked the second launch of a Chinese spacecraft in a span of 37 hours. No concrete information about the first spacecraft was released by the State. This has led observers to speculate it might be an intelligence-gathering satellite or a platform to warn Chinese leaders of a missile strike.
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