The four spacecraft will be launched into an orbit 370 miles (600 km) from the Xichang launch base in the mountainous region of Sichuan Province in southwest China and will launch on Thursday at 1811 GMT (2:11 PM EST). I did it.

According to the Chinese Academy of Vehicle Launch Technology (CALT), the launch took place Friday at 2:11 a.m. Beijing time, according to a government-owned contractor promoting the Long March 2C missile.

The authorities declared the mission “completely successful,” according to a CALT statement. According to US military tracking data, the two-stage liquid-fuel missile sent the payload into its intended orbit at an angle of 35 ° to the equator.

The satellite is the eighth triple of the Yogan spacecraft Type 30 that has been launched by the Long March 2C rocket from the Xichang facility into a similar orbit since 2017. According to the state-run Xinhua News Agency, the three Yujan satellites, which were launched on 08-30 Thursday, designed “to discover the electromagnetic environment and related technical tests.”

The mission of the satellites

The Chinese government uses the name Yaogan satellite for its military satellites, and the Yaogan 30 family is believed to be designed for signal intelligence missions.

Some analysts have suggested that the satellites of the Yaogan 30 family could test new electronic listening devices and help Chinese forces track US and other foreign naval deployments. … However, no details about the spacecraft and its mission have been disclosed by the Chinese government.

Another satellite was launched on Thursday, Tianqi 12, a small commercial satellite for data transmission from Beijing-based Guodian Gaoke.

The launch of three Yujan 30 satellites is the 13th orbital launch attempt from China so far this year. 12 missions were successful.