{"id":16009,"date":"2015-10-07T19:54:54","date_gmt":"2015-10-07T11:54:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/quartet-of-earth-imaging-satellites-launched-from-china\/"},"modified":"2015-10-07T19:54:54","modified_gmt":"2015-10-07T11:54:54","slug":"quartet-of-earth-imaging-satellites-launched-from-china","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/quartet-of-earth-imaging-satellites-launched-from-china\/","title":{"rendered":"Quartet of Earth imaging satellites launched from China"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The
The Long March 2D rocket with four Jilin 1 satellites lifted off at 0413 GMT (12:13 a.m. EDT; 12:13 p.m. Beijing time) Wednesday. Credit: Xinhua<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Four commercial satellites launched from China\u2019s northwestern spaceport Wednesday, riding into a 400-mile-high orbit on top of a two-stage Long March 2D booster rocket.<\/p>\n

The four satellites, all made in China, will look down on Earth to collect high-resolution imagery, high-definition video and test new Earth observing technologies, according to Chinese space authorities.<\/p>\n

The package of Jilin 1 satellites lifted off at 0413 GMT (12:13 a.m. EDT) from the Jiuquan space base near the border of China\u2019s Gansu and Inner Mongolia provinces in the Gobi desert, the official Xinhua news agency reported.<\/p>\n

The two-stage rocket, standing 13 stories tall, bolted into space to deploy the four satellites in a near-circular orbit about 650 kilometers \u2014 approximately 400 miles \u2014 above Earth at an inclination of 98 degrees, U.S. military tracking date indicated.<\/p>\n

The largest of the satellite quartet is about the size of a compact car, and it reportedly has a top resolution of about 0.7 meters, or 2.3 feet, in its black and white imaging mode.<\/p>\n

Three smaller satellites also launched Wednesday, two for video capture and one for engineering tests. Xinhua reported all four satellites were built by Chang Guang Satellite Technology Co. Ltd.<\/p>\n

\"The
The largest of the four Jilin 1 satellites is seen during ground testing. Credit: Chinese Academy of Sciences<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The orbiters have rapid imaging capabilities and three-dimensional observing functions, according to the Chinese Academy of Sciences.<\/p>\n

\u201cSatellites are no longer far removed from people\u2019s lives,\u201d said Xuan Ming, board chairman of Chang Guang Satellite Technology, in an article published by Xinhua. \u201cIn the near future, more information provided by the satellites will be shared, and more satellite functions will be explored.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chang Guang, a division of China\u2019s state-owned Changchun Institute of Optics in the northeastern Jilin province, will take over commercial exploitation of the satellites, which are China\u2019s first commercial remote sensing spacecraft. The company plans to sell imagery to clients in China and overseas, serving markets for resource monitoring and disaster prevention.<\/p>\n

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

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

The Long March 2D rocket with four Jilin 1 satellites lifted off at 0413 GMT (12:13 a.m. EDT; 12:13 p.m. Beijing time) Wednesday. Credit: Xinhua Four commercial satellites launched from China\u2019s northwestern spaceport Wednesday, riding into a 400-mile-high orbit on top of a two-stage Long March 2D booster rocket. The four satellites, all made in […]<\/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":[135,2069,1578,205,2184],"class_list":["post-16009","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-china","tag-jilin-1","tag-jiuquan","tag-long-march","tag-long-march-2d"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16009"}],"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=16009"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16009\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}