{"id":16066,"date":"2015-09-14T23:51:03","date_gmt":"2015-09-14T15:51:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/china-conducts-two-space-launches-in-short-span-2\/"},"modified":"2015-09-14T23:51:03","modified_gmt":"2015-09-14T15:51:03","slug":"china-conducts-two-space-launches-in-short-span-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/china-conducts-two-space-launches-in-short-span-2\/","title":{"rendered":"China conducts two space launches in short span"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"A
A Long March 2D rocket launched Monday with the Gaofen 9 remote sensing satellite. Credit: Xinhua<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Two space launches from China in a 37-hour span have placed an experimental communications satellite and a sharp-eyed Earth-viewing craft into orbit, according to Chinese state media reports.<\/p>\n

Neither launch was officially announced ahead of time by Chinese authorities.<\/p>\n

The first mission blasted off from the Xichang space center in southwestern China\u2019s Sichuan province, where a Long March 3B rocket streaked into orbit with an experimental satellite to test communications technologies, the official Xinhua news agency reported.<\/p>\n

Fitted with four strap-on liquid-fueled boosters, the Long March 3B lifted off at 1542 GMT (11:42 a.m. EDT) Saturday, or 11:42 p.m. Beijing time.<\/p>\n

The rocket\u2019s third stage released the secretive payload about 27 minutes later, dropping the satellite in a geostationary transfer orbit with a high point of approximately 35,800 kilometers (22,245 miles) and a low point of about 200 kilometers (124 miles), according to U.S. military tracking data.<\/p>\n

No other information about the spacecraft was released by China \u2014 including its name \u2014 leading some observers to speculate it might be an intelligence-gathering satellite or a platform to give early warning to Chinese leaders of a missile strike.<\/p>\n

\"A
A Long March 3B rocket lifted off Saturday from the Niching space center. Credit: Xinhua<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Another liftoff Monday from the Jiuquan launch base in the Gobi Desert of northwest China put up a new Earth observation satellite, officials said.<\/p>\n

A two-stage Long March 2D booster fired away from Jiuquan at 0442 GMT (12:42 a.m. EDT) Monday, according to Xinhua.<\/p>\n

Its payload was the Gaofen 9 remote sensing satellite, a civilian-operated asset designed to collect imagery of Earth with a resolution better than 1 meter (3.3 feet), Xinhua reported.<\/p>\n

Xinhua said the Gaofen 9 satellite \u201cwill be used in land survey, urban planning, road network design, agriculture, and disaster relief.\u201d<\/p>\n

U.S. satellite tracking information indicated Gaofen 9 was flying around Earth in a nearly circular orbit averaging about 639 kilometers, or 397 miles, in altitude at an inclination of 98 degrees.<\/p>\n

\u201cDeveloped by the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology, Gaofen 9 can also serve key national strategies such as the Belt and Road Initiative and national defense,\u201d Xinhua reported.<\/p>\n

Previous satellites in the Gaofen series \u2014 Gaofen 1, Gaofen 2 and Gaofen 8 \u2014 launched from China in 2013, 2014 and earlier in 2015.<\/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 2D rocket launched Monday with the Gaofen 9 remote sensing satellite. Credit: Xinhua Two space launches from China in a 37-hour span have placed an experimental communications satellite and a sharp-eyed Earth-viewing craft into orbit, according to Chinese state media reports. Neither launch was officially announced ahead of time by Chinese authorities. […]<\/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":[135,159,1793,2133,1578,205,2184,1888],"class_list":["post-16066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-china","tag-earth-observation","tag-gaofen","tag-gaofen-9","tag-jiuquan","tag-long-march","tag-long-march-2d","tag-long-march-3b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16066"}],"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=16066"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16066\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}