Long March 4C lofts latest Yaogan Weixing satellite

Confirming the rumors that have circulated over recent days, China has launched another new satellite in the military’s Yaogan Weixing series via the use of a Long March-4C (Chang Zheng-4C) rocket. The mission began with liftoff at 02:31 UTC on Thursday, from the LC9 launch complex at the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center. As per usual, Chinese media is referring to the new satellite as “a new remote sensing bird that will be used for scientific experiments, land survey, crop yield assessment, and disaster monitoring”. However, as was the case in the last launches of the Yaogan Weixing series, western analysts believe this class of satellites is used for military purposes. More

(Source: NASASpaceFlight.com - Aug 28)