China has successfully launched a remote sensing satellite to carry out land surveys and disaster relief. The satellite named Yaogan-30 was launched from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in northwestern China’s Gobi Desert. The satellite will be used for experiments, land surveys, crop yield estimates and disaster relief. Yaogan-30 was carried by a Long March-2D rocket, the 227th mission for the Long March rocket family. China launched the first “Yaogan” series satellite, Yaogan-1, in 2006.

Yaogan-30 is probably an electro-optical observation satellite based on the military Jianbing-6 series. The Jianbing-6 electro-optical satellites carry high resolution optical sensors and reportedly have a resolution of between one to three meters and are placed in orbits that provide favorable illumination for the imaging missions.

Did You Know?

The Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, in Ejin-Banner – a county in Alashan League of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region – was the first Chinese satellite launch center and is also known as the Shuang Cheng Tze launch center. The site includes a Technical Centre, two Launch Complexes, Mission Command and Control Centre, Launch Control Centre, propellant fuelling systems, tracking and communication systems, gas supply systems, weather forecast systems, and logistic support systems.