Roaring rocket lifts satellite into space
Video by Xu Jingxing
China's biggest and most powerful carrier rocket, the Long March 5, kicked off its latest space mission on Friday night in Hainan province. It was carrying the largest satellite ever built domestically.
As the launch sequence of the Long March 5-Y3 rocket started at 8: 45 pm, 10 engines－at the bottom of the first core stage, plus four boosters－generated a tremendous combined thrust of more than 1,000 metric tons to lift the gigantic craft from its launchpad at the Wenchang Space Launch Center in the island province.
The 57-meter-long rocket, the tallest, strongest and most technologically sophisticated in China's launch vehicle family, then thundered up into the cloudy night sky with a blinding white flash.
About 33 minutes into the flight, it successfully placed the Shijian 20 experimental satellite, China's largest and heaviest－weighing 8 tons－into a geosynchronous orbit 36,000 kilometers above Earth.
The 8-ton Shijian 20 is the second technology demonstration satellite based on China's new-generation satellite platform, the DFH 5. It follows the Shijian 18, which was lost in the failed second flight of a Long March 5.
