China says it has successfully launched a new Earth observation satellite into orbit, as part of the country’s developing space program.
The satellite, Gaofen-12 04, was launched from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China on Monday, China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) declared in a post on the WeChat social network.
CASC further noted that the satellite was sent into space by a Long March-4C carrier rocket at 1:45 a.m. Beijing time and has entered the planned orbit successfully, becoming the 484th launch.
Data from the satellite will be used in a variety of fields, including land surveys, urban planning, road network design, crop yield estimation and natural disaster warning.
Beijing has been actively developing its national space program, as it works on meteorological, telecoms and navigation satellites as well as Moon exploration technology.
In parallel, Chinese experts are working on a project to explore asteroids and Mars. Also, the country has completed building a Chinese space station that is open to international cooperation.
In 2022, China carried out 64 launches, breaking its own record, and came second after the United States.
