{"id":12219,"date":"2020-09-17T23:16:48","date_gmt":"2020-09-17T15:16:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/china-successfully-launches-satellites-from-ocean-going-platform\/"},"modified":"2020-09-17T23:16:48","modified_gmt":"2020-09-17T15:16:48","slug":"china-successfully-launches-satellites-from-ocean-going-platform","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/china-successfully-launches-satellites-from-ocean-going-platform\/","title":{"rendered":"China successfully launches satellites from ocean-going platform"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A Long March 11 rocket climbs away from a platform in the Yellow Sea on Tuesday. Credit: Xinhua<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A solid-fueled Long March 11 launcher delivered nine small Chinese Earth observation satellites to orbit Tuesday after firing off a ship positioned in the Yellow Sea.<\/p>\n

The four-stage rocket blasted off from the De Bo 3 launch platform in the Yellow Sea at 0123 GMT Tuesday (9:23 p.m. EDT Monday), according to China\u2019s government-run Xinhua news agency. Liftoff occurred at 9:23 a.m. Beijing time.<\/p>\n

The booster quickly raced into the sky, heading south over the Yellow Sea trailing a plume of solid rocket exhaust. Chinese officials later declared the mission a success, and U.S. military tracking data showed the rocket reached a polar sun-synchronous orbit very close to the targeted altitude of 332 miles (535 kilometers).<\/p>\n

The Long March 11 flight Tuesday was the second Chinese sea-based launch into orbit, following a Long March 11 mission in June 2019. With the mission this week, China has launched Long March 11 rockets on 10 missions since 2015, and all have been successful.<\/p>\n

Developed by the state-owned China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology, or CALT, the Long March 11 measures about 68 feet (20.8 meters) tall and nearly 7 feet (2 meters) in diameter. It can haul up to 770 pounds (350 kilograms) of payload to a 435-mile-high (700-kilometer) sun-synchronous orbit.<\/p>\n

The rocket configuration used for sea-based launches is known as the Long March 11H. The launch operations Tuesday were managed by teams from the land-based Taiyuan spaceport.<\/p>\n

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A Long March 11 rocket fires out of a canister Tuesday. Credit: Xinhua<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The nine satellites launched Tuesday will join a fleet of Earth-imaging satellites owned by Chang Guang Satellite Technology Co. Ltd., a commercial remote sensing company based in China\u2019s Jilin province. Founded in 2014, the company has launched 25 commercial Earth-imaging satellites since 2015, including the nine spacecraft deployed this week.<\/p>\n

In a statement, Chang Guang said six of the satellites launched Tuesday carry push-broom imagers to collect high-resolution photos around the world. Those are part of the company\u2019s Jilin 1 Gaofen-03B constellation.<\/p>\n

The other three spacecraft, designated as Jilin 1 Gaofen-03C satellites, are built for high-definition video imaging, the company said.<\/p>\n

Each spacecraft weighed around 88 pounds, or 40 kilograms, at the time of launch, Chang Guang said. The push-broom imaging satellites have a resolution of about 3.3 feet, or 1 meter,<\/p>\n

The video satellites can collect imagery with a resolution of about 3.9 feet, or 1.2 meters, covering an area of about 8.9 miles (14.4 kilometers) by 3.7 miles (6 kilometers), the company said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Chang Guang said two of the video satellites were sponsored by CCTV, China\u2019s state-run television network, and the Chinese video streaming platform Bilibili to use imagery of Earth in media content and popular science videos.<\/p>\n

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Nine Jilin 1 remote sensing microsatellites were launched Tuesday on the Long March 11 rocket. Credit: Chang Guang Satellite Technology Co. Ltd.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The launch Tuesday signals the transition from Chang Guang\u2019s research and development phase to full-scale production, the company said. Chang Guang, which builds its own satellites, aims to launch a fleet of 138 Earth observation satellites in the coming years.<\/p>\n

Images from the Jilin 1 satellites can be used in land and resource monitoring, urban planning, and disaster management, officials said.<\/p>\n

The successful Long March 11 flight Tuesday marked the 27th orbital launch attempt by China so far this year.<\/p>\n

Email the author.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Long March 11 rocket climbs away from a platform in the Yellow Sea on Tuesday. Credit: Xinhua A solid-fueled Long March 11 launcher delivered nine small Chinese Earth observation satellites to orbit Tuesday after firing off a ship positioned in the Yellow Sea. The four-stage rocket blasted off from the De Bo 3 launch […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1886,2067,135,2068,159,2069,2070,2071],"class_list":["post-12219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-calt","tag-chang-guang-satellite-technology","tag-china","tag-de-bo-3","tag-earth-observation","tag-jilin-1","tag-jilin-1-gaofen-03b","tag-jilin-1-gaofen-03c"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12219"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12219"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12219\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}