{"id":13763,"date":"2018-06-03T17:40:53","date_gmt":"2018-06-03T09:40:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/earth-observers-delivered-to-space-by-long-march-2d-rocket\/"},"modified":"2018-06-03T17:40:53","modified_gmt":"2018-06-03T09:40:53","slug":"earth-observers-delivered-to-space-by-long-march-2d-rocket","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/earth-observers-delivered-to-space-by-long-march-2d-rocket\/","title":{"rendered":"Earth-observers delivered to space by Long March 2D rocket"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"678\" height=\"381\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/um_10VVrasA?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; encrypted-media\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Video credit: CGTN<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>A Chinese environmental research craft and an experimental Earth-imaging nanosatellite successfully launched Saturday aboard a Long March 2D rocket.<\/p>\n<p>The two satellite co-passengers lifted off at 0413 GMT (12:13 a.m. EDT) from the Jiuquan space base in northwestern China\u2019s Inner Mongolia region, riding a two-stage Long March 2D launcher away from the remote military base atop more than 650,000 pounds of thrust.<\/p>\n<p>Less than 15 minutes later, the Long March 2D\u2019s upper stage delivered the Gaofen 6 and&nbsp;Luojia 1 spacecraft to orbit. Chinese state media declared the mission a success.<\/p>\n<p>Tracking data published by the U.S. military indicated the satellites were circling Earth at an altitude of approximately 400 miles, or 640 kilometers, following a track inclined 98 degrees to the equator.<\/p>\n<p>The launch Saturday marked the 16th space launch of the year by China. The next Chinese space launch is set for Tuesday with the Fengyun 2H weather satellite.<\/p>\n<p>The Gaofen 6 Earth observation payload launched Saturday is an upgraded version of the Gaofen 1 satellite China shot into orbit in 2013. The 2,345-pound (1,064-kilogram) Gaofen 6 satellite joins a fleet of Earth-monitioring craft in China\u2019s Gaofen family, a series of civilian-operated remote sensing observatories similar in purpose to Europe\u2019s Sentinel environmental satellites.<\/p>\n<p>Designed for an eight-year mission, Gaofen 6 can measure the nutrient content of vegetation and help estimate the yields of crops, such as corn, rice, soybeans, cotton and peanuts, said&nbsp;Tong Xudong, chief engineer of the Gaofen satellite program, in a report published by China\u2019s state-run Xinhua news agency.<\/p>\n<p>Gaofen 6 will also survey forest and wetland resources and monitor agricultural disasters such as floods and droughts, according to Xinhua.<\/p>\n<p>Saturday\u2019s launch of Gaofen 6 came less than a month after China sent the Gaofen 5 satellite into orbit to monitor greenhouse gases, air pollutants and other environmental parameters.<\/p>\n<p>The smaller&nbsp;Luojia 1 spacecraft accompanied Gaofen 6 on the Long March 2D launcher, beginning its own experimental remote sensing mission.<\/p>\n<p><b><i>Email the author.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Video credit: CGTN A Chinese environmental research craft and an experimental Earth-imaging nanosatellite successfully launched Saturday aboard a Long March 2D rocket. The two satellite co-passengers lifted off at 0413 GMT (12:13 a.m. EDT) from the Jiuquan space base in northwestern China\u2019s Inner Mongolia region, riding a two-stage Long March 2D launcher away from the [&hellip;]<\/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":[135,1608,159,1793,2945,1578,25,205],"class_list":["post-13763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-china","tag-cubesats","tag-earth-observation","tag-gaofen","tag-gaofen-6","tag-jiuquan","tag-launch","tag-long-march"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13763"}],"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=13763"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13763\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}