China successfully sent five satellites into space from the East China Sea on April 30. The five satellites, including the Jilin-1 Gaofen 03D, were launched by a Long March-11 carrier rocket at 11:30 Beijing Time and have entered the planned orbit. The newly-launched satellites will provide commercial remote sensing data services for sectors including land resource survey, urban planning and disaster monitoring. This mission is China’s third sea-based launch mission, which further expanded the maneuvering range of maritime launch and accumulated technological expertise for future long-distance sea-based launch missions. The mission’s success will lay cornerstones for normalized and high-frequency launches at sea in the future.
