A Long March 2C carrier rocket carrying two satellites blasts off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Northwest China, Feb 27, 2025. (Photo by Wang Jiangbo/For chinadaily.com.cn)
China launched a Long March 2C carrier rocket on Thursday afternoon to deploy two satellites into their preset orbit, according to China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp, the nation's leading space contractor.
The State-owned conglomerate said in a news release that the rocket blasted off at 3:08 pm at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Northwest China and soon placed the satellites, Siwei Gaojing 1C and 1D, into a sun-synchronous orbit about 500 kilometers above the land.
Developed by the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology, a CASC subsidiary, the satellites are equipped with high-resolution optical imagers and will be used to obtain data for the management of natural resources, city construction planning, emergency response and other commercial operations, according to the company.
After in-orbit tests, the satellites will join seven of their predecessors in the Siwei commercial remote-sensing satellite system, which is run by China Siwei Surveying and Mapping Technology, an operator owned by CASC. Upon its completion, the system will have 28 satellites, project planners said.
A product of the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology in Beijing, another CASC subsidiary, the Long March 2C rocket type is 43 meters long and 3.35 meters wide and has a liftoff weight of 242.5 metric tons. The rocket is mainly used to deploy satellites to low-Earth and sun-synchronous orbits.
The mission marked China's ninth space launch this year and the 561st flight of the Long March rocket family, the nation's main launch vehicle fleet.
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