6 remote-sensing satellites successfully take to the skies

CHINA sent six new remotesensing satellite into planned orbit yesterday: one from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China’s Gansu Province and the other five from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in north China’s Shanxi Province.

The Jilin-1 Gaofen 02A, which belongs to the Jilin-1 satellite family, was launched by Kuaizhou-1A, a carrier rocket, at 11:40am.

And then, the five Ningxia-1 satellites were launched by a Long March-6 carrier rocket at 2:35pm.

KZ-1A is a low-cost solidfuel carrier rocket with high reliability and a short preparation period. It, developed by a company under the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation, is mainly used to launch low-orbit microsatellites.

Yesterday’s launch was the second mission of the KZ-1A rocket in 2019.

It had previously completed three commercial launches from January 2017 to August 2019.

The Jilin-1 Gaofen 02A satellite is a new optical remote-sensing satellite independently developed by Chang Guang Satellite Technology Co Ltd, featuring high resolution, wide width and high-speed data transmission.

It will form a network with 13 previously launched Jilin-1 satellites, providing remotesensing data and services in fields such as agriculture, forestry, resource and the environment.

The five Ningxia-1 satellites are part of a commercial satellite project funded by the Ningxia Jingui Information Technology Co Ltd and will be mainly used for remote-sensing detection.

The satellites and carrier rocket were developed by the DFH Satellite Co Ltd and the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology.

Yesterday’s launch was the 318th mission for the Long March series carrier rockets.

(Xinhua)