China Launches Gaofen 9 Remote Sensing Satellite

by GIS Resources , 2015-09-15

Gaofen-9

China has launched Gaofen 9 remote sensing satellite at 04:45 UTC on Monday using Long March-2D launch vehicle from the 603 Launch Pad of the LC43 Launch Complex to orbit.

It is possibly the second of possibly five orbital launches by China in September. This launch comes two days after the launch of an unknown spacecraft – unofficially claimed to be the Communications Engineering Test Satellite -1 (TJSSW-1), from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center.

The mission of Gaofen-9 will be similar to the Gaofen-8, with spy sat models being turned over to a semi-civilian role. As it was mentioned by the Chinese authorities, Gaofen-9 will provide sub-meter class resolution optical images for city planning, road network design, land ownership determination, etc. purposes.

This launch was the 222nd Chinese orbital launch and the 209th launch of the Long March launch vehicle family. It was also the 78th orbital launch from the Jiuquan Satellite launch Center, the 1st launch from this space center in 2015 and the 6th orbital launch for China this year.

• NASA Space Flight