On July 19 at 00:19 UTC, a Long March 2C launched the tenth triplet of Yaogan 30 remote sensing satellites for the Yaogan constellation. Like nearly every Chinese remote sensing satellite, even the officially civilian ones, the satellite’s mission was described as “electromagnetic environment detection and related technical verification.” Also onboard was Tianqui 15, part of a commercial Internet Of Things constellation.

One interesting thing about this launch is that the Long March 2C rocket had parachutes on its fairings, though not for recovery and reuse, but to constrain the place that they impact after separation. While previous Long March rockets have had chutes on the fairings, this vehicle had parachutes that opened higher than the previous flights, to further reduce the size of the impact area.

More Information

CASC press release (Chinese)

Launch video