A China Long March 2D rocket launched on Wednesday, June 17, 2020, at 7:19 AM (UTC).

The rocket carried three satellites to low earth orbit: GaoFen-9 03, HEAD-5, and Pixing-3A.

GaoFen-9 03 is an optical remote sensing satellite. According to Xinhua, it will be used in areas such as land census, urban planning, land rights determination, road network design, crop estimation and disaster prevention and reduction. The optical sensors are really high resolution. Each pixel of an image captured represents less than a meter on the Earth. 

HEAD-5 is the fifth satellite in the HEAD constellation. They are used for ship monitoring by receiving the Automated Identification System (AIS) signals that ships continually broadcast. It has a mass of 45 kilograms; for Americans, that’s 23 two-liter soda bottles. 

Pixing-3A is a nano-satellite that is testing technology that will be used for the collection of global ship navigation and flight status data.

More Information

Xinhua news article [Chinese]

Gaofen 9-01, 02, 03 (Gunter’s Space Page)

HEAD 1, 2A, 2B, 3, 4, 5 (Gunter’s Space Page)

Zheda Pixing 3A (Gunter’s Space Page)