China sent five new satellites into space on Saturday, a launch that markeda new technological breakthrough for the country.
A locally made Long March-11 carrier rocket took off from the coast of theEast China Sea with five Jilin-1 Gaofen satellites, the first time Chinacompleted a “one-stop” sea launch, state-run daily *Global Times *reported.
All required processes were done on site at the Haiyang Oriental AerospacePort in Haiyang in the eastern Shandong province.
“In previous seaborne launch missions, the rocket needed to complete oneassembly test before being transported to the pier, and receive anothertest after it arrives, and the process was relatively complicated,” said LiTongyu, commander-in-chief of the Long March rocket type.
The report explained that the Haiyang port “supports the rocket to beassembled, tested, docked with the satellites, and loaded on the launchvessel in only a few hours.”
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“In this way, it saves a considerable amount of preparation time bystreamlining the process, and significantly reduces the cost,” Li said.
The Long March-11 rocket, which is capable of both land and sea launches,has “achieved 10 consecutive successful land launches and three successfulsea launches,” the report added.
