At 2253 GMT on 12 October China conducted a Long March 2C/3 (CZ-2C/3) launch that was a surprise to many Western observers. The mission from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in Northern China carried the HJ-2E (Huanjing Jianzai 2E) Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellite to an approximately 500 km sun-synchronous orbit. It is described as a 5-metre resolution S-band radar satellite to be used for “disaster reduction, emergency management, and environment monitoring”. The satellite is known in English as “Emergency Disaster Mitigation No. 2E”.
The Long March 2C rocket lifting off carrying its payload to orbit. Courtesy of Xinhua/Xu Chunlei
