China despatched yet one more clutch of Gaofen Earth commentary satellites to space on Wednesday (Nov. 16).
A Ceres-1 rocket carrying 4 Gaofen 03D satellites launched Wednesday at 2:20 a.m. EST (0720 GMT; 2:20 p.m. native time) from the Jiuquan Satellite tv for pc Launch Heart in northwest China. Xinhua, a state-run media outlet, confirmed that the satellites deployed efficiently.
“The payloads lifted by the rocket will likely be used to offer industrial distant sensing companies,” Xinhua reported (opens in new tab), including that that is the fourth flight of Ceres-1, which is constructed by the state-supported Beijing firm Galactic Power.
Area corporations in China are usually not impartial entities like in america or most different international locations. Quite, they are usually offshoots of the China National Space Administration and the Chinese language authorities.
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The Gaofen sequence varieties a part of the China Excessive-resolution Earth Remark System, which goals to seize high-resolution imagery of our planet’s floor. However the makes use of of the Gaofen satellites stay considerably nebulous.Â
Throughout previous launches, Chinese language state media shops have mentioned that Gaofen satellites help with city planning, street community design, land surveys, crop yields and catastrophe reduction. Capabilities of the Gaofen sequence embody microwave, optical and radar distant sensing, Chinese language officers have mentioned. However the South China Morning Post (opens in new tab) has instructed there could also be army purposes of the satellites as effectively.
Wednesday’s launch was China’s 53rd of 2022, bringing the nation inside three liftoffs of matching its 2021 file of 56. The nation usually operates independently of the worldwide space group; NASA is restricted by the U.S. authorities in making bilateral agreements with China, though NASA Administrator Invoice Nelson just lately mentioned that collaboration with China is “as much as China.”
Elizabeth Howell is the co-author of “Why Am I Taller (opens in new tab)?” (ECW Press, 2022; with Canadian astronaut Dave Williams), a ebook about space medication. Observe her on Twitter @howellspace (opens in new tab). Observe us on Twitter @Spacedotcom (opens in new tab) or Facebook (opens in new tab).
