{"id":12840,"date":"2019-11-14T01:27:26","date_gmt":"2019-11-13T17:27:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/two-chinese-satellite-launchers-lift-off-three-hours-apart\/"},"modified":"2019-11-14T01:27:26","modified_gmt":"2019-11-13T17:27:26","slug":"two-chinese-satellite-launchers-lift-off-three-hours-apart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/two-chinese-satellite-launchers-lift-off-three-hours-apart\/","title":{"rendered":"Two Chinese satellite launchers lift off three hours apart"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
A solid-fueled Kuaizhou 1A rocket launched from the Jiuquan space base in northwestern China\u2019s Inner Mongolia region at 0340 GMT Wednesday (10:40 p.m. EST Tuesday). Credit: Xinhua<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Chinese rockets performed two satellite delivery missions in a three-hour span Wednesday, carrying a commercial Earth-imaging satellite and five mysterious surveillance payloads into orbit.<\/p>\n

The launches originated from two separate spaceports in northern China, using a light-class solid-fueled Kuaizhou 1A launcher and a liquid-fueled Long March 6 rocket, according to Chinese state media reports.<\/p>\n

The back-to-back launches carried different missions into orbit, and were not originally planned to occur on the same day. Officials aborted a Kuaizhou 1A launch attempt last month for unspecified technical reasons.<\/p>\n

The four-stage Kuaizhou 1A rocket \u2014 the fourth of its type \u2014 blasted off from the Jiuquan space base in northwestern China at 0340 GMT Wednesday (10:40 p.m. EST Tuesday), Chinese state media said.<\/p>\n

Liftoff occurred at 11:40 a.m. Beijing time.<\/p>\n

The government-run Xinhua news agency reported the Kuaizhou 1A rocket carried a commercial Earth observation satellite for Chang Guang Satellite Technology Co. Ltd., a commercial spinoff of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The Jilin 1 Gaofen 02A spacecraft is the 14th satellite to join Chang Guang\u2019s Jilin 1 remote sensing constellation since 2015.<\/p>\n

Chang Guang\u2019s observation platforms are designed to collect high-definition video, color pictures, and detailed hyperspectral imagery of Earth, providing information to the Chinese military, civilian agencies and commercial users.<\/p>\n

The Kuaizhou 1A rocket is managed by Expace, a commercially-oriented subsidiary of the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp., the biggest Chinese state-backed aerospace contractor. Technical details of the Kuaizhou 1A launcher, capable of injecting 440 pounds (200 kilograms) of payload to a 435-mile-high (700-kilometer) orbit, have not been released by Chinese authorities, but the rocket is likely based on modified Chinese ballistic missile technology.<\/p>\n

U.S. military tracking data indicated the Kuaizhou 1A rocket released the Jilin 1 Gaofen 02A spacecraft in an polar orbit approximately 330 miles (535 kilometers) above Earth, with an inclination of 97.5 degrees to the equator.<\/p>\n

\"\"
A Long March 6 rocket lifted off from the Taiyuan space center at 0635 GMT (1:35 a.m. EST) Wednesday, the second of two Chinese launches to occur in a three-hour span. Credit: Xinhua<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A separate Chinese launch crew working at the Taiyuan space center \u2014 roughly 600 miles (1,000 kilometers) east of Jiuquan \u2014 prepared a Long March 6 rocket for liftoff at 0635 GMT (1:35 a.m. EST) Wednesday.<\/p>\n

After climbing away from its launch pad at Taiyuan, located in northern China\u2019s Shanxi province, the three-stage Long March 6 rocket was expected to head toward the southeast, according to pre-launch airspace warning notices released by the Chinese government.<\/p>\n

China\u2019s official Xinhua news agency said the launch was successful, delivering five Ningxia 1 satellites to orbit for a \u201cremote sensing detection\u201d mission. The five spacecraft \u201care part of a commercial satellite project invested by the Ningxia Jingui Information Technology Co. Ltd.,\u201d Xinhua said.<\/p>\n

The Ningxia 1 satellites were developed by DFH Satellite Co. Ltd., an entity within China\u2019s state-owned aerospace apparatus specializing in the production of small spacecraft platforms.<\/p>\n

Previous information released on the Ningxia 1 satellites suggest the spacecraft are designed for a signals intelligence mission.<\/p>\n

The 95-foot-tall (29-meter) Long March 6 rocket is one of three new Long March-series satellite launchers debuted since 2015. Wednesday\u2019s mission marked the third launch of a Long March 6 booster.<\/p>\n

The Long March 6 is capable of hauling up more than a ton of payload into a sun-synchronous orbit a few hundred miles in altitude, a popular destination for many Earth observation satellites.<\/p>\n

The Long March 6\u2019s first stage is powered by a kerosene-fueled YF-100 main engine, a staged combustion powerplant Chinese engineers have worked on since 2000. The engine generates approximately 120 metric tons, or 264,000 pounds, of thrust. A YF-115 engine provides propulsion for the Long March 6 second stage.<\/p>\n

The YF-100 and YF-115 engines are the same new-generation powerplants used on China\u2019s bigger Long March 5 and Long March 7 rockets.<\/p>\n

Liquid-fueled thrusters on the Long March 6\u2019s third stage guide the rocket\u2019s payloads into their targeted orbits for deployment.<\/p>\n

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

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

A solid-fueled Kuaizhou 1A rocket launched from the Jiuquan space base in northwestern China\u2019s Inner Mongolia region at 0340 GMT Wednesday (10:40 p.m. EST Tuesday). Credit: Xinhua Chinese rockets performed two satellite delivery missions in a three-hour span Wednesday, carrying a commercial Earth-imaging satellite and five mysterious surveillance payloads into orbit. The launches originated from […]<\/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":[2067,135,291,159,2089,1793,2069,1578],"class_list":["post-12840","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-chang-guang-satellite-technology","tag-china","tag-commercial-space","tag-earth-observation","tag-expace","tag-gaofen","tag-jilin-1","tag-jiuquan"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12840"}],"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=12840"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12840\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}