On April 30 at 07:25 UTC, China launched another rocket — this time a Long March 4C rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern China. Onboard was the Yaogan 34 mission.

This was the first of a new series of remote sensing satellites likely for military applications as the generic name “Yaogan” translates to “Remote Observing”. The purpose of this specific Yaogan satellite was described as an optical remote sensing satellite, mainly used in territorial survey, urban planning, land right confirmation, road network design, crop yield estimation, disaster prevention, and mitigation, and other fields.

More Information

Space China press release (Chinese)

Yaogan 9 info page (Gunter’s Space Page)

Launch video