China successfully sent nine Jilin-1 Gaofen 03-1 satellites into planned orbit at the Yellow Sea Tuesday. The launch was made from the Long March-11 carrier rocket and the mission was conducted from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center.
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“Last week, China sent an observation satellite, Gaofen-11 02, into the orbit through a Long March-4B carrier rocket. It will be used for mapping efforts in China's ambitious Belt and Road Initiative,” news agency AA recalled and commented that “with its expanded space work including the launch of satellites, China is closer to completing its own space station.”
Three of the Jilin-1 Gaofen 03-1 satellites will be used for video imaging, one of which is for China's popular video sharing platform Bilibili and another for the state broadcaster CCTV. Meanwhile, the other six satellites are push-broom imaging satellites.
The Bilibili satellite has features of low development cost, low power consumption, lightweight, and high resolution.
The satellite can get color videos and images with a resolution higher than 0.98 meters. The data will be used to create popular videos, covering fields such as science and technology, humanities, history, and education, and will be released on Bilibili.
The nine satellites will provide remote sensing data for the country's land resource surveys, urban planning, and disaster monitoring services.
Developed by the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, the Long March-11 is the only rocket among China's Long March rocket series that uses solid propellants.
It is mainly used to carry small satellites and can take multiple satellites into orbit at the same time. Tuesday's launch was the 346th by the Long March rocket series.