China despatched a secretive remote-sensing satellite named Horus 1 to orbit on Friday evening (Feb. 23) because the nation begins to ramp up its launch exercise.
A Long March 2C rocket lifted off from Jiuquan Satellite tv for pc Launch Middle within the Gobi Desert at 11:01 p.m. on Friday (0401 GMT; 12:01 p.m. Beijing time on Feb. 24). Insulation tiles fell away from the rocket because it rose into the sky earlier than carrying Horus 1 into orbit.
China’s essential space contractor CASC announced (opens in new tab) launch success inside an hour of liftoff. The Horus 1 satellite is designed for distant sensing and was produced by CASC’s China Academy of Area Expertise. No additional particulars have been offered by CASC or Chinese language state media.
Associated: The latest news about China’s space program
A Jiuquan mission management display saying mission success, nonetheless, gave a first hint (opens in new tab) that the satellite might have been launched for Egypt. Egyptian media confirmed (opens in new tab) this a day later, with quotes from the pinnacle of the Egyptian space company.
Astronomer and space launch observer Jonathan McDowell noted (opens in new tab) that Egypt has beforehand contracted CASC to construct remote-sensing satellites. The 2 international locations have not too long ago deepened their space-related cooperation, in keeping with a 2022 report (opens in new tab) from Area in Africa.
U.S. Space Force space area consciousness groups later tracked the satellite in a roughly 308-mile-high (496 kilometers) sun-synchronous orbit.
Lower than a day earlier, China launched the Zhongxing 26 (ChinaSat 26) communications satellite towards geostationary orbit. A Lengthy March 3B lifted off from Xichang in southwest China at 6:49 a.m. EST (1149 GMT or 7:49 p.m. Beijing time) on Feb. 23.
Zhongxing 26 is China’s first communications satellite with a communications capability of greater than 100 gigabits per second (Gbps), according (opens in new tab) to Chinese language state media. The satellite will present high-speed non-public community communications and satellite web providers to China and the Asia-Pacific area in live performance with the sooner Zhongxing 16 and 19 spacecraft.
Zhongxing 26 was China’s first launch for greater than a month, following a pause in exercise because the nation marked the New 12 months in keeping with the standard Chinese language calendar. China aims to launch at the least 200 spacecraft on greater than 60 deliberate launches in 2023.
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