On Wednesday evening, China launched the first of a new series of Haiyang ocean observation satellites. The Long March 2C rocket lifted off into clear skies over the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center at 22:55 ET, November 15 (03:55 UTC, November 16). China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) announced a successful launch within an hour after takeoff and stated that the payload was Haiyang-3 (01).

Haiyang-3 (01) will operate in a sun-synchronous orbit. It will provide ocean weather surveillance using X-band SAR payload during its planned eight-year lifespan.

CASC said the new high-precision ocean water color observation satellite will target different water bodies around the world using multiple detection methods and provide insight into various ecological and biological processes. It will be able to provide continuous dynamic monitoring of water color, water temperature, sea ice and other variables to provide timely remote sensing information.

The Haiyang-3 series will complement the Haiyang-2 satellites with SAR observations. Previous series focused on variables such as wind speed, sea level and sea surface temperature. The satellite was developed by the China Academy of Space Technology (CAST). It will be operated by China’s National Ocean Survey Satellite Service (NSOAS).

Ocean monitoring satellites are valuable for providing data to weather models to predict and monitor climate change. They also provide useful information for pollution monitoring, marine navigation and safety. The launch of Haiyang-3 (01) was China’s 53rd orbital launch this year. At the beginning of the year, CASC announced that it planned more than 60 launches and has completed 39 launches so far.

Commercial launch service provider Galactic Energy announced Thursday that it will soon resume launches of the Ceres-1 solid-state rocket. The company experienced its first failure at the end of September. Galactic Energy had a streak of nine consecutive successful launches before the failure.

In late October, the company announced the results of its investigation into the crash. The report states that abnormal ablation of the first stage engine nozzle occurred, causing the rocket to lose attitude control one minute into the flight.