China successfully sent two new hyperspectral satellites into space on Wednesday.
The satellites, Oriental Smart Eye 01 and Oriental Smart Eye 02, were launched at 10:38 Beijing Time (0238 GMT) atop a Smart Dragon-3 (SD-3) carrier rocket from waters off the coast of Haiyang, a city in east China's Shandong Province. The satellites have entered the planned orbit.
The newly launched satellites are part of China's "Oriental Smart Eye Constellation" project, which aims to deploy more than 200 high-resolution intelligent satellites by 2030, comprising over 100 optical satellites, over 100 radar satellites, and four hyperspectral satellites.
The offshore launch mission was conducted by the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center.
It marked the 12th mission of the SD-3 rocket.
The SD-3 is part of China's Dragon rocket family, which has been developed specifically to meet the growing market demand for the launch of small, commercial low-orbit satellites and satellite networks. It is capable of sending a payload of 1.5 tonnes into sun-synchronous orbit at an altitude of 500 kilometers.
China sends 2 new hyperspectral satellites into orbit from sea
