China launches geoscience satellite serving UN agenda
The rocket blasted off at 10:19 a.m. from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in Shanxi province, according to the State-owned company, and later placed the Wide-Eye Geoscience Satellite into its planned orbit.
![An Earth science satellite is launched from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in Taiyuan, North China's Shanxi province, Nov 5, 2021. [Photo/Xinhua]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/An-Earth-science-satellite-is-launched-from-the-Taiyuan-Satellite-Launch-Center-in-Taiyuan-780x470.jpeg)
According to China Aerospace Scientific and Technology Corp., or CASC, the country’s top space contractor, a Long March 6 carrier rocket was utilized to launch a science satellite on Friday morning.
The rocket blasted off at 10:19 a.m. from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in Shanxi province, according to the State-owned company, and later placed the Wide-Eye Geoscience Satellite into its planned orbit.
The Chinese Academy of Sciences designed and built the satellite, which is tasked with conducting precision space-based surveys of fuel consumption, urban construction, and coastal environments in densely populated areas to support research on human-nature interaction and sustainable development. According to the academy, it is the world’s first satellite dedicated to serving the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
The Big Earth Data Science Engineering Program funded the spacecraft’s construction, and it is the first to be administered by the academy’s International Research Center of Big Data for Sustainable Development Goals.
Friday’s launch was the Long March rocket family’s 395th mission, as well as the rocket’s eighth flight, which was conceived and produced by the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology, a CASC subsidiary.
The 29.3-meter rocket is capable of launching a payload weighing around 1 metric ton into a sun-synchronous orbit 700 kilometers above the ground. Its main propulsion system is a 120-ton-thrust liquid oxygen and kerosene engine.
According to CASC, the rocket is expected to fly four times in 2021.
This year, CASC expects to launch around 40 missions, including those for the nation’s space station program. It has now completed 38 launches, all of which have been successful. According to the company’s space program planners, 2021 will be the busiest year for launch activity.
In 2020, China launched 34 rockets, three of which were Long March 5-series rockets that carried China’s next-generation manned spacecraft, the country’s first independent Mars probe, and the Chang’e 5 lunar sample-return mission into space.
