China successfully launched a Long March-2D rocket on Sunday, sending 14 new satellites into space. The rocket blasted off from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in north China's Shanxi Province at 11:14 a.m. (Beijing Time). The satellites, including Qilu-2 and Qilu-3, have entered their planned orbits. Qilu-2 and Qilu-3 are a high-resolution optical satellite and a wide-swath optical satellite, respectively, with payloads of optical-imaging devices for Earth observation. They will provide east China's Shandong Province with remote sensing services for land survey, agriculture, forestry, environmental protection, and disaster prevention and reduction. They will also work in coordination with the in-orbit Qilu-1 satellite. This was the 462nd flight mission using the Long March rocket series. The Long March-2D rocket was developed by the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology, a subsidiary of the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation. Known for its reliability and adaptability, this rocket can meet multiple launching demands for a single satellite and series satellites in series-or-parallel layouts aboard the rocket. In this mission, it carried 14 satellites from 7 different developers. On Jan. 9, China successfully sent three new satellites into space from the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site in the southern island province of Hainan. The satellites, Shijian-23, Shiyan-22A and Shiyan-22B, were launched aboard a modified version of the Long March-7 carrier rocket at 6:00 a.m. (Beijing Time) and entered their planned orbits successfully. The Shijian-23 satellite is mainly used for scientific experiments and technical verification, while the Shiyan-22A and Shiyan-22B satellites serve the in-orbit verification tests of new technologies such as space environment monitoring. The launch was the 459th flight mission of the Long March carrier rocket series. — Xinhua
