China has successfully launched three new remote sensing satellites on Saturday. Official media reported that the launch took place from the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre situated in the country’s southwestern Sichuan province.
According to the Xinhua news agency, the satellites belong to the Yaogan-35 family and were launched by a Long March-2D carrier rocket, after which they entered the planned orbit successfully.
This launch marked the 396th mission for the Long March series carrier rockets.
In March 2019, China’s Long March-3B rocket had successfully completed its 300th launch by putting a new communication satellite into orbit. The Long March carrier rocket series has been regarded as the mainstay of the country’s space programme since 1970.
Developed by the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, the rocket series has been responsible for about 96.4 per cent of all the launch missions in China. Interestingly, it took 37 years for the Long March rockets to complete the first 100 launches, 7.5 years to complete the second 100 launches, and only about four years to accomplish the final 100.
The average number of launches per year thereby increased from 2.7 to 13.3 and then to 23.5, Xinhua reported in 2019.
