On August 6 at 4:00 am UTC China launched a Long March 2D from Jiuquan Satellite Center.

Onboard were two satellites: Gaofen-9 04 and Tsinghua Science Satellite.

Gaofen is an optical remote sensing satellite and increases the size of the Gaofen-9 constellation to four satellites. According to China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CAST), the images collected by the satellites will be used for “national land survey, urban planning, land right confirmation, road network design, crop yield estimation, and disaster prevention”.

The Tsinghua Gravity and Atmospheric Science Satellite was developed by undergraduate and graduate students at Tsinghua University. Chinanet Technology reports that it will measure gravity and atmospheric density in low orbit.

More Information

CAST press release (Chinese)

Tsinghua University press release (Chinese)

China Net Technology article (Chinese)

Spaceflightnow article