China sends multirole satellite into orbit

China launched a Long March 6A carrier rocket to send a multirole satellite into orbit on Saturday morning, according to China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp.

The State-owned space contractor said in a news release that the rocket blasted off at 6:52 am at the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in Shanxi province and transported the Yunhai 3 satellite into its preset orbit.

The satellite is tasked with surveying atmospheric, marine and space environments, providing data to support disaster prevention and mitigation efforts, and carrying out scientific experiments, it said.

Both the satellite and rocket were designed and built by the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology.

This is the second launch mission of the Long March 6A rocket. The model made its debut flight in March.

The medium-lift rocket consists of a 50-meter, liquid-propelled core booster and four solid-fuel side boosters. The core booster has a diameter of 3.35 meters and is propelled by two 120-ton-thrust engines burning liquid oxygen and kerosene.

With a liftoff weight of 530 metric tons, the rocket is mainly tasked with transporting satellites to multiple types of orbit, including sun-synchronous, low-Earth and intermediate circular orbit.

The launch mission marked the 448th flight of the Long March rocket family and the country's 49th space missions this year. More than 60 rocket launches have been scheduled in 2022.