China launches new Earth observation satellite

China on Wednesday sent a new Earth observation satellite into space from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China.

The Gaofen 12-05 satellite was launched at 07:45 Beijing Time (2345 GMT on Tuesday) aboard a Long March 4C carrier rocket and entered the planned orbit successfully.

The satellite will be used in a variety of fields including land surveys, urban planning, road network design, crop yield estimation and disaster relief.

The launch marked the 540th flight mission of the Long March carrier rocket series.

The launch of carrier rocket the Long March-12 on Saturday night marks the beginning of operations at China's first-ever commercial launch site and signifies a major milestone for the nation's space undertaking, according to experts.

The Saturday night launch was conducted at the Hainan commercial spacecraft launch site on the southern island province of Hainan.

This launch marks the inaugural mission at China’s first commercial space launch site. It is also the maiden flight of the Long March-12 carrier rocket, China’s first four-meter-class launch vehicle and the country’s largest single-core launch vehicle to date.

The success of this mission has been celebrated by many who dream of exploring space.

"The success of the new service tower, the new rocket, as well as our new team and new mechanism, could be viewed as a milestone in the history of China's commercial space sector," said Liu Hongjian, president of the Hainan International Commercial Aerospace Launch (HICAL), which built and operates the launch site. "We took into account the rocket’s batch production and industrialization as we started to design it. That way we could quickly improve China’s efficiency in entering space," said Wu Jialin of the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology under the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, which developed the rocket.