China turned a spaceflight doubleheader right into a triple play.
The nation lobbed one more rocket into space Monday (Sept. 26) at 7:50 p.m. EDT (2350 GMT; 7:50 a.m. native time on Tuesday, Sept. 27), this time with three satellites on board, following two different profitable liftoffs over the previous few days.
On Monday night’s mission, from the Taiyuan Satellite tv for pc Launch Heart within the northern province of Shanxi, a Long March 6 rocket efficiently delivered to orbit three satellites: Shiyan-16A, Shiyan-16B and Shiyan-17, in response to Chinese language media experiences.
“Shiyan means ‘experiment’ in Chinese language. The Shiyan satellite trio will present information for land survey, city planning and catastrophe prevention and mitigation,” the state-run media outlet Xinhua wrote in a brief report (opens in new tab) in regards to the launch.
China had already launched two different rockets simply 40 hours apart previous to Monday night’s motion.
Associated: China launches 4 satellites with 2 rockets in 2 days
On Saturday (Sept. 24) at 6:55 p.m. EDT (2255 GMT; 6:55 a.m. Beijing time on Sept. 25), a Kuaizhou-1A solid rocket carried the Shiyan-14 and Shiyan-15 spacecraft into space, as soon as once more from Taiyuan.
That launch was the 18th total for the Kuaizhou-1A, which is operated by the Chinese language firm ExPace (a subsidiary of the state-owned China Aerospace Science and Trade Company).
“The Shiyan-14 will primarily be used to conduct scientific experiments and confirm new applied sciences, whereas the Shiyan-15 will present information within the fields of land survey, city planning and catastrophe prevention and mitigation,” Xinhua reported on Sunday (opens in new tab) (Sept. 25).
The second launch occurred Monday at 9:38 a.m. EDT (1338 GMT; 9:38 p.m. Beijing time) from the Xichang Satellite tv for pc Launch Heart, in southwestern China’s Sichuan province. On that flight, a Long March 2D rocket efficiently despatched the Yaogan 36 remote-sensing satellite to orbit, Xinhua reported (opens in new tab).
Whereas Xinhau didn’t focus on the satellite’s functiona, Western consultants have mentioned the Yaogan satellites doubtless acquire imagery and information for each civilian and army launches. It is a populous set of satellites, provided that China has despatched a number of units of Yaogan 35 triplets to space in 2022 alone.
Observe Elizabeth Howell on Twitter @howellspace (opens in new tab). Observe us on Twitter @Spacedotcom (opens in new tab) or Facebook (opens in new tab).
