A Long March 2D/2 rocket lifted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, China, at 1522 GMT, 21 December. The mission’s primary payload was the TANSAT, atmospheric carbon dioxide-monitoring minisatellite. Along with TANSAT there were reportedly three other payloads on-board, two SPARK hyperspectral imaging microsatellites, and a high-resolution, multi-spectral imaging nanosatellite called YIJIAN.
This flight was the 7th launch utilising the Long March 2 family this year, and the 21st from China in total.
China has one more launch scheduled for 2016, another Long March 2D on 26 December, carrying the first two GAO JING (or SUPERVIEW) commercial Earth Observation satellites, built for a Chinese company.
