The Tianhui-4 satellite was safely launched into space by China on Wednesday from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the country’s northwest.

At 7:13 p.m. (Beijing Time), a Long March-2D carrier rocket launched the satellite into its intended orbit.

The launch was the Long March series carrier rockets’ 404th flight mission.

The satellite will be used to explore land resources.

The Long March 2D, which was developed by the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology, is capable of delivering several satellites to different orbits and has a liftoff weight of 300 metric tons.

It can lift 1.2 tons to a conventional sun-synchronous orbit at 700 kilometers altitude, which is commonly utilized by meteorological or remote-sensing satellites.

So far in 2021, the Long March rocket fleet has successfully launched 47 rockets – a record-breaking number for any other rocket family in the globe. This year’s Long March flights were all successful.

According to Zheng Yonghuang, chief engineer of the center’s launch center, two manned spacecraft, Shenzhou-12 and Shenzhou-13, were launched this year from the launch facility, which also performed the first search and retrieval mission of a manned spacecraft.

China on Wednesday successfully sent the Tianhui-4 satellite into space from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China. The satellite was launched by a Long March-2D carrier rocket at 7:13 p.m. (Beijing Time) and has entered its planned orbit. #ChinaTech pic.twitter.com/37Y8t2OxoA

— China News 中国新闻网 (@Echinanews) December 29, 2021

According to the sources, two spacecraft launches, two spacecraft retrieval missions, and more than 20 satellite launches will be carried out by the launch site in 2022.

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