As the sun rose on the east horizon of the Gobi desert half a day ago, another Chinese rocket was launched to carry two technology demonstration satellites into space. The Long March 2D rocket was launched from pad SLS-2 from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center at 00:15 UTC (08:15 local time) Sunday, and deployed the Shiyan Weixing 4 (SY-4) & Chuang Xin 1C (CX-1C) satellites in a ~800 km sun-synchronous orbit. SY-4 will test some kind of new technology (from what I have seen, it might have carry new infrared scanning sensors for military testing), while CX-1C (built by the Chinese Academy of Sciences) will continue to test store-dump communication techniques in low Earth orbit.
Marking a record 15 orbital launches of the year by late November, the Chinese will continue their quick pace of launching satellites with probably 5 launches in December and another 3 launches in January 2012!
Overview launch article on NASASpaceflight.com
Discussion threads for the launch:
http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=27285.0
http://www.9ifly.cn/thread-5771-1-1.html (in Chinese)
Launch photos:
Chinese news reports about the launch:
http://news.cntv.cn/china/20111120/103880.shtml
http://video.sina.com.cn/v/b/65681688-1802518255.html
Marking a record 15 orbital launches of the year by late November, the Chinese will continue their quick pace of launching satellites with probably 5 launches in December and another 3 launches in January 2012!
Overview launch article on NASASpaceflight.com
Discussion threads for the launch:
http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=27285.0
http://www.9ifly.cn/thread-5771-1-1.html (in Chinese)
Launch photos:
Chinese news reports about the launch:
http://news.cntv.cn/china/20111120/103880.shtml
http://video.sina.com.cn/v/b/65681688-1802518255.html