China launched a trio of satellites into orbit on Saturday (July 25) on separate missions to study Earth, hunt down dark matter with an X-ray “lobster’s eye” and collect trade data.
A Long March 4B rocket successfully launched the Ziyuan III 03 Earth observation satellite and two other charges from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in the northern province of Shanxi. The takeoff occurred at 11:14 am Beijing time.
The launch video showed the debris showering off the rocket during takeoff, but the event (in which the insulation tiles fall from the reinforcement) is normal. Social media images also showed some remains of the rocket that had landed in the Yunyang district of Shiyan city, Hubei, according to space journalist Andrew Jones.
Ziyuan III 03, the primary payload for the mission, is a high-resolution Earth mapping satellite designed to capture 3D images and multispectral observations, according to a CCTV report.
Related: Latest news on China’s space program
The rocket also carried two other small satellites developed by Shanghai ASES Spaceflight Technology Co. Ltd., one to search for dark matter and the other built for “business data acquisition,” according to CCTV.
In a translated statement, the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) said one of the satellites is an X-ray astronomy spacecraft that uses “bionic lobster-eye technology” to hunt down dark matter. According to SpaceNews, the satellite is called NJU-HKU No.1 and is an experiment by the University of Hong Kong and Nanjing University to search for dark matter signals.
The aftermath of the long March 4 release of Ziyuan-3 (03) and two small sats yesterday. Remains found in the Yunyang District of Shiyan City, Hubei. Source: Shiyan Afternoon News https://t.co/fQIMq4yFF3 pic.twitter.com/pRDX5Vi0Mt July 26, 2020
CASC officials said the third satellite is the latest addition to the “Apocalypse” constellation to test key technologies for a space-based Internet of Things. The Apocalypse constellation is a project of Beijing Guodian Gaoke Technology Co. Ltd., SpaceNews reported.
Saturday’s launch closely followed China’s historic Tianwen-1 mission, which launched the country’s first rover from Mars to the Red Planet on July 24. That mission, which took off on a March 5 rocket from the Wenchang Satellite Launch Center on Hainan Island, will arrive on Mars in February 2021.
Email Tariq Malik at [email protected] or follow him at @tariqjmalik. Follow us on @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Instagram.
