A secret military payload successfully launched aboard a Long March rocket early Wednesday, continuing a feverish pace of Chinese space activity that includes a mysterious orbital rendezvous, an upcoming lunar probe and preps for continued human missions. It was the fifth launch in barely 50 days for China, and the second mission in that period lofting a clandestine Yaogan reconnaissance satellite. Wednesday's launch began with the blastoff of a Long March 2D rocket at 0242 GMT (10:42 p.m. EDT Tuesday) from the Jiuquan space centre in the desert of northwestern China, according to the state-run Xinhua news agency.
China successfully launched a remote-sensing satellite "Yaogan XI" Wednesday from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in the northwestern Gansu Province. The satellite was sent into space aboard a Long March 2-D carrier rocket at 10:42 a.m. (Beijing Time), according to the centre. Read more