China launches Long March 6 with nine satellites
April 27, 2021
China’s lightweight Long March (Chang Zheng) 6 rocket has successfully launched nine small satellites in a rideshare mission Tuesday. The launch took place at 11:20 China Standard Time (03:20 UTC) from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Centre in China’s northern Shanxi province.
Tuesday’s launch was a rideshare mission, dubbed 长征快车 – Chang Zheng Kuaiche or “Long March Express”. It was coordinated by the China Great Wall Industry Corporation, the commercial arm of China’s space agency. The nine satellites aboard will carry out technology demonstration and Earth observation missions for their operators.
A pair of Qilu remote sensing satellites, Qilu-1 and Qilu-4, are being carried for the Shandong Industrial Research Institute. Qilu-1 is equipped with a synthetic aperture radar system to provide all-weather radar imaging of the Earth’s surface. Its observations will be complemented by the panchromati