At 1546 GMT, 27 June, a Chinese Long March-4C (CZ-4C) rocket carried the Gaofen 12-03 (12C) satellite into low Earth orbit (LEO). The mission lifted-off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. The satellite is equipped with a Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) payload and its reported mission is of land monitoring for infrastructure and agricultural purposes and “disaster prevention and mitigation”. The mission, although notionally civil, is also likely to have a military application.
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The Long March 4C rocket lifting-off from Jiuquan. Courtesy of Xinhua/Wang Jiangbo