A geostationary observation satellite

Using the Long March 3B launcher that has been implemented on October 11st at 16:57 UTC from Xichang (south-ouest of the country), China launched Gaofen 13, a high-resolution Earth observation civil satellite, on a geostationary transfer orbit – an unusual orbit for this kind of satellite.

Gaofen 13, with a resolution up to 15 m, enables land study, crop yield estimation, environment management, the prevention of disasters, and providing information services for the economic national development.

Record in sight

Sending the Gaofen 13 in the space, China signed its thirtieth attempt to launch into orbit in 2020 (26 successes and 4 failures).

Two month and half before the end of this year, China is about to do better than the previous year (34 attempts, 32 successes), even surpassing its absolute record dated from 2018 (39 attempts, 38 successes).

At the moment, China is ahead of the United States (25 attempts, 23 successes) if we distinguish the missions of the Electron micro launcher of Rocket Lab, launched from New Zealand (4 attempts, 3 successes).