China despatched new army satellites to orbit Wednesday (Nov. 3) for an undisclosed mission, following a prolonged launch delay.
State media reported the second cluster of Yaogan-32 satellites flew to space from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center close to the Gobi Desert at 3:43 a.m. EDT (0743 GMT or 3:43 p.m. native time.)
“Entering the scheduled orbit, the launch mission was a complete success,” mentioned the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) in mission report machine-translated into English.
The satellites went to orbit aboard a Long March 2C rocket, the identical booster sort that launched the earlier set of Yaogan-32 satellites to space in 2018. At the time, state media supplier Xinhua mentioned the satellites could be “used for electromagnetic environment surveys and other related technology tests,” according to NASASpaceflight.com.
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State media had a lot the identical description for the brand new set of satellites launching to space, with Space China saying the Yaogan-32 sequence would “carry out electromagnetic environment detection and related technical tests.” Xinhua’s short news report, although, didn’t have an outline of the mission.
The mission was initially set to launch in mid-September, however was delayed for undisclosed causes.
China operates its space program independently of different nations and has a practice of solely mentioning launches after the actual fact. In current months, the nation has come under criticism from senior NASA management for its actions in space, together with allowing a large rocket to fall uncontrolled from orbit. (No one, finally, was injured.)
Last week, China reported it had set a new record of orbital launches in 2021, with 40 missions put into space.
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