On November 20, 2021, China launched a new satellite called “Gaofen-11 03” from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Centre.

Key Points

• Taiyuan Satellite Launch Centre is located in the northern province of Shanxi.
• Satellite was launched by a Long March-4B rocket.
• It entered the planned orbit successfully.
• Launch of the satellite marked 397th mission of Long March series carrier rockets.

Long March 4B

This satellite is also called as Chang Zheng 4B, CZ-4B and LM-4B. It is an expendable orbital Launch vehicle of China. The satellite was Launched from Launch Complex 1 of Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center. It is a 3-stage rocket, which is used to place satellites into low Earth orbit as well as sun-synchronous orbits. This satellite was first launched in 1999, with FY-1C weather satellite. It was later used in 2007 Chinese anti-satellite missile test. Its only failed satellite was CBERS-3 satellite, which was launched in 2013.

Gaofen

Gaofen is a series of high-resolution Earth imaging satellite of China, which is used for state-sponsored program China High-resolution Earth Observation System (CHEOS). First Gaofen series satellite, called Gaofen 1 was launched in 2013.  Gaofen-11 03 is an Earth observation satellite, which is operated by CNSA. It was separated in the Sun-synchronous orbit, successfully.