As reported by Ukrinform, Xinhua reported it.

The Ceres-1 Y7 commercial launch vehicle with satellites took off from Jiuquan Cosmodrome in Inner Mongolia in northwest China at 12:03 am local time (07:03 Kyiv time) on Thursday.

Equipped with hyperspectral, infrared and panchromatic cameras, the Xiguang-1 01 spacecraft will be used to observe the Earth, monitor the state of natural resources, agriculture and forestry, support the functioning of smart city systems, and reduce natural disaster risks.

In addition, the rocket includes remote sensing satellites with artificial intelligence-powered WonderJourney-1A and Starpool I-1B, designed to provide communication and improve navigation between satellites in space and satellites on the ground.

The Ceres-1 launch vehicle is a light-class solid propellant four-stage rocket with a diameter of 1.4 m and a length of 19 m, capable of launching a payload of up to 400 kg into low Earth orbit. The current launch was its seventh flight, and the first took place in November 2020. Since then, more than 20 commercial satellites have been launched into Earth orbit thanks to him.

Beijing is actively developing the national space program, developing both meteorological, telecommunications and navigation satellites, as well as lunar exploration technologies. Chinese experts are simultaneously implementing a project to study asteroids and Mars.

Last year, China broke its own record with 64 launches, second only to the United States. China plans to launch even more space launches this year and set a new record.

As Ukrinform reported, China on Wednesday launched a new HJ-2 06 satellite into space to monitor natural disaster risk.

Photo: “Xinhua”