China successfully completed a third Long March launch in less than a week deploying a land exploration satellite. The Long March 2D launch vehicle lifted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi desert at 07:10 GMT (15:10 Beijing China – GMT+8).
Kicking off a frenetic launch schedule, China launched a pair of SuperView-1 Earth observation satellites aboard a Long March 2D from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Centre on January 9. The second deployed a pair of BeiDou satellites into orbit aboard a Long March 3B launch vehicle on January 11.
This manic launch schedule is unlikely to slow with state and private launch providers planning on launching no fewer than 40 missions in 2018.
Image Credit: Xinhua
