China has added a brand new batch of three spacecraft to a categorized collection of orbiting Yaogan satellites.
A Lengthy March 2C rocket lifted off from Xichang Satellite tv for pc Launch Heart at 9:09 p.m. EDT on Oct. 22 (0109 GMT and 9:09 a.m. Beijing time on Oct. 23), rising into overcast skies above the spaceport in southwestern China.
The China Academy of Launch Car Know-how (CALT) revealed that the mission carried three Yaogan-43 (03) satellites, marking the third launch of the satellite tv for pc collection.
No photographs of the satellites have been printed. CALT and Chinese language state media described the spacecraft solely vaguely, stating they are going to be “primarily used for assessments on new applied sciences for low-orbit constellations.”
Associated: China’s Lengthy March rocket household: Historical past and pictures
The launch follows two earlier Yaogan-43 missions in August and September. The primary launched on a Lengthy March 4B from Xichang and carried 9 satellites, whereas the second group — additionally aboard a Lengthy March 4B — consisted of six satellites.
The brand new additions joined the 15 earlier satellites in orbits of round 310 miles (500 kilometers) in altitude with an inclination of 35 levels.
CALT acknowledged that its expendable Lengthy March 2C rocket would perform a number of launches earlier than the tip of 2024.
The launch was China’s 51st of 2024, and follows three launches over the previous week. The exercise noticed the nation launch a second batch of 18 satellites for its “Thousand Sails” low Earth orbit megaconstellation, a brand new Gaofen-12 distant sensing satellite tv for pc, and three Tianping-3 radar calibration satellites.
China is at the moment getting ready to launch its Shenzhou-19 crewed mission from Jiuquan. A Lengthy March 2F rocket will ship three astronauts to the Tiangong area station to start a six-month-long keep in area.
