Long March 6 Rocket Sends 9 Satellites into Space

China launched a Long March 6 carrier rocket from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in North China's Shanxi Province on April 27, sending nine commercial satellites into space.

It was the first time China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation has provided an integrated launching of multiple satellites into different orbits under its special fast launch service.

Developed by the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology, a subsidiary of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, the Long March 6 carrier rocket is China's new generation of small liquid carrier rocket.

It has a payload capacity to the sun-synchronous orbit 700 kilometers from the Earth of 1 metric ton and is capable of sending a single satellite or multiple satellites via one launch.

With a modest payload capacity, the rocket had a short development period. What's more, it has a large fairing and a special launch position. To date, it has completed four launches.

The launch on April 27 was the 366th flight mission of the Long March carrier rocket series.

The satellites include the Qilu-1 SAR remote sensing satellite and the Qilu-4 optical remote sensing satellite. The former is used to collect microwave remote sensing images of the ground and verify in-orbit autonomous task programming, image processing and low-orbit inter-satellite laser communication technologies, and the latter will provide East China's Shandong Province with remote sensing services for land planning, urban construction, agriculture, forestry, energy, and disaster prevention and response.

Other satellites will be used in such fields as technological verification, real-time imaging and observation, data acquisition and transmission, and observations of small celestial bodies and remote sensing services.

A Long March 6 carrier rocket, carrying nine commercial satellites, is launched from Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in North China's Shanxi Province on April 27. [Photo/sasac.gov.cn]

The Long March 6 carrier rocket is assembled in a factory before its launch on April 27. [Photo/sasac.gov.cn]

(Executive editor: Wang Ruoting)