China successfully sent the Gaofen-9 05 高分九号05 – a high resolution Earth observation satellite – into planned orbit via a Long March-2D carrier rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Northwest China’s Gansu Province on Sunday morning at around 10:30 am.
The Gaofen-9 05 is an optical remote-sensing satellite that is capable of providing photographs with a resolution of less than a meter.
It will be used for land surveys, urban planning, road network design, agriculture and disaster relief, and support the construction of the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative, the Global Times learned from China’s space authorities.
A multi-functional experiment satellite that was developed by China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Academy of Military Sciences, and Tiantuo-5, a spacecraft developed by the National University of Defense Technology, were also launched during the mission.
The multi-functional experiment satellite will carry out work in a series of new fields in orbit ranging from communication to navigation. Tiantuo-5 will be used to verify in-orbit information collection capabilities from ships, spacecraft and Internet of Things.
