30.09.2025

China on Monday sent two new test satellites into space from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in the southwestern province of Sichuan.

The test satellites, Shiyan-30 01 and 02, were launched at 11:00 a.m. (Beijing Time) aboard a Long March-2D carrier rocket and entered their preset orbits successfully.

The satellites will be mainly used for experimental verification of Earth observation technologies.

The launch marked the 598th flight mission of the Long March series carrier rockets. This is also the 100th launch of Long March-2D carrier rocket which is a two-stage liquid-fueled launch vehicle capable of deploying single or multiple satellites into a variety of orbits.

The rocket has the capacity to send a payload of 1.9 tonnes to a 500-kilometer sun-synchronous orbit.

Since its maiden flight in 1992, the rocket has served as the mainstay for China's low-Earth and sun-synchronous-orbit missions, renowned for its high reliability, outstanding performance and strong safety record.

To date, the Long March-2D carrier rocket has successfully delivered more than 300 satellites into their planned orbits, covering a wide range of types including remote-sensing, mapping and space science. The dark matter probe satellite Wukong and the quantum science satellite Mozi were successfully launched aboard the Long March-2D carrier rocket consecutively in 2015 and 2016.

The Long March-2D carrier rocket has also provided high-quality launch services for international clients from Turkiye, Saudi Arabia, the Netherlands, Argentina and Pakistan.

Quelle: Xinhua