China has successfully launched a new batch of remote-sensing satellites into space from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China.
The four satellites of PIESAT-2 were launched by a Long March 2C carrier rocket and entered its planned orbit successfully. They will mainly provide commercial remote-sensing data services.
According to the statement, the launch was the 544th flight mission of the Long March carrier rocket series.
The remote-sensing satellites are spacecraft designed to collect data about the Earth’s surface, atmosphere, and oceans from space, without making physical contact. They use a variety of sensors and instruments, including cameras, radar, and spectrometers, to capture information in the form of images, measurements, and other data.
In March 2023, China launched PIESAT-1 or Hongtu-1, a wheel-like formation of four satellites, the first formation of its kind in the world. They later successfully obtained high-precision terrain mapping data products using the multi-baseline interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) technology, marking China’s first in-orbit application of such a mapping system.
Last month, China sent a group of new remote-sensing satellites into orbit from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China’s Sichuan Province. Belonging to the Yaogan-30 family, the satellites were launched by a Long March-2C carrier rocket.
The satellites have entered the planned orbits and will be used for electromagnetic environment detection and related technological tests. It was the 350th mission of the Long March rocket series.
As per the statement, “Also on board the rocket was a satellite belonging to the Tianqi constellation. The satellite, Tianqi-6, will be used for data transmission. The Tianqi constellation, developed by a Beijing-based high-tech company, is for short-message communications.”
