China has successfully launched a new telecommunication satellite into orbit from the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre in Sichuan Province in southwest China. The Long March-2C carrier missile successfully launched the APSTAR-6E into its intended orbit. The Long March carrier rocket series launched its 460th flight mission. The satellite is generally employed to provide high-speed network connectivity to Southeast Asia.
China launched several other telecommunication satellites in 2021 and 2020. China lifted a second mobile telecommunication satellite from the same launch pads on January 20, 2021. The Tiantong 1-03 satellite was successfully launched by a Long March-3B carrier rocket at 00:25 a.m. (Beijing Time).
Tiantong-1 is a satellite mobile communication system conceived and manufactured entirely by China. It comprises three parts: a space segment, a ground segment, and a user terminal. The Tiantong 1-03 satellite, developed by the China Academy of Space Technology, will construct a mobile network with ground facilities. The satellite will deliver all-weather, all-time, stable, and dependable mobile communication services such as voice, text, and data.
The facilities serve users in China and its neighbouring territories, the Middle East, Africa, and other adjacent regions, as well as most Pacific and Indian Ocean maritime areas. The project was the 358th Long March rocket series launch and the country’s first space launch in 2021.
On July 9, 2020, China deployed APSTAR-6D, a commercial telecommunication satellite, into space from the launch centre. The APSTAR-6D telecommunication satellite was launched by a Long March-3B carrier rocket at 8:11 p.m., according to the centre (Beijing Time).
The China Academy of Space Technology, a division of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, designed the satellite. One of China’s global satellite operators purchased it to provide satellite broadband communication services for airborne, shipborne, vehicle-borne, and other mobile communication purposes.
In the first month of 2023, China released a slew of new satellites into space. On January 9, the country launched three satellites into space aboard a Long March-2D carrier rocket. The rocket lifted off the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in northwest China at 3 p.m. (Beijing Time) and launched the satellites Yaogan-37, Shiyan-22A, and Shiyan-22B into orbit. The three satellites will be utilised chiefly for in-orbit testing innovative technologies such as space environment observation. It was the Long March series rockets’ 461st flight mission.
China’s advancement in space exploration was notable. It has even become one of the country’s most significant achievements, according to the top ten scientific advances list for 2022. The list was compiled by members of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE).
China completed its space station in-orbit construction in 2022, with two manned spaceships, two cargo vessels, and two 20-tonne-level lab modules launched into orbit. In July, China launched six satellites into space using an independently constructed solid-propellant rocket called Lijian-1.
The Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope (FAST), also known as the “China Sky Eye,” made numerous discoveries, including the detection of a coherent interstellar magnetic field, a strange repeating fast radio burst, magnetic fields near the fast radio burst, and a massive atomic gas structure. China sent Kuafu-1, a solar exploration satellite, into space in October to investigate the secrets of the sun, releasing its first solar image in November.
In addition, the first set of scientific data from China’s space-borne solar camera exploring the solar transition area has been revealed. The 46.5-nanometer extreme ultraviolet imager, or Solar Upper Transition Region Imager (SUTRI), placed on the SATech-01 satellite, was launched into space on July 27, 2022, by a Lijian-1 carrier rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in northwest China.
According to the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ National Astronomical Observatories, SUTRI is the world’s first solar imager to work at a wavelength of 40 to 110 nanometres using a multilayer narrow-band filtering technology.
The instrument can obtain full-disk dynamic images of solar regions between the solar chromosphere and corona, bridging the gap between the sun’s lower and upper atmospheres. SUTRI began operations on August 30, 2022, and within four months, had captured over 200,000 images. The first data set was collected between September 5 and November 5 last year. The equipment in orbit is now operational and is expected to produce more data.
