The first Chinese launch in 2011 took place at 20:47UTC on Saturday (April 9), as their Chang Zheng-3A (Long March 3A) launch vehicle orbited the third BeiDou-2 a navigation satellite, following lift-off from the Xi Chang Satellite Launch Center, in Sichuan Province. China is planning around 20 missions in 2011.

Ending a record breaking year, China launched its seventh satellite as part of their large navigation system via their Long March 3A – otherwise known as the CZ-3A Chang Zheng-3A (Y18) – launch vehicle. The launch of BeiDou-2 ‘Compass-I2′ took place from the Xi Chang Satellite Launch Center, in Sichuan Province at 20:20UTC on Friday.

China launched the second Shen Tong-1 military communications satellite via a CZ-3A Chang Zheng-3A (Y19) launch vehicle, providing secured voice/data communications services for PLA ground users in Ku-band. Receiving the designation ZX-20A ZhongZhing-20A, the satellite was launched from the Xi Chang Satellite Launch Center, in Sichuan Province at 00:09 loca time on Friday.

Sources in China have confirmed the identity of one of the two female Air Force pilots currently vying to become China’s first woman in space. Captain Wang Yaping, 32, a Transport Pilot in the People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF), and another currently unidentified colleague were selected in March, from a pool of fifteen female [...]

China’s Chang Zheng-4C (Long March 4C) launch vehicle has launched the FY-3 Feng Yun-3B meteorological satellite, the second of the experimental series. The launch took place at 18:37 UTC on Thursday (2:37am local time on Friday), lifting off from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center – as China increases its record year to 13 launches. Satellite [...]

China has launched the sixth satellite in their growing navigation system on Sunday, via the launch of their Long March 3C (Chang Zheng-3C) launch vehicle, carrying the BeiDou-2 Compass-G4 satellite. The launch of took place from the Xi Chang Satellite Launch Center, in Sichuan Province at 16:26UTC on October 31.

The Chinese are continuing to push towards a record year for launches, as a Long March 4B (CZ-4B Chang Zheng-4B) lofted the Shi Jian-6 Group-04 satellites (SJ-6G Shi Jian-6G and SJ-6H Shi Jian-6H) from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center at 00:49 UTC, Wednesday.

The second phase of China’s lunar exploration launched on Friday, the national day of China, at 10:59:57 UTC (6:59am Eastern) - with the lift-off of Chang’e-2, China second lunar probe. The spacecraft is being lofted by a CZ-3C Chang Zheng-3C (Y7) (Long March 3C) launch vehicle from the LC2 launch complex of the Xi Chang Satellite [...]

China has carried out the ninth orbital launch of the year, by launching their Long March 2D carrying the Weixing-11 remote sensing satellite. The launch took place at 02:42UTC on Wednesday, lifting off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. Meanwhile, China has spoken about its near-term space flight goals.

A Long March 3B (CZ-3B – Y13) has launched with the SinoSat-6 (also known as the ChinaSat-6A) telecommunications satellite on behalf of China. Lift-off took place at 16:14 UTC on Saturday September 4 (September 5 – 12:14 am local time) from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in SouthWest China’s Sichuan Province. The satellite will replace [...]

China has launched another new satellite – the TH-1 Tian Hui-1 – on August 24, using a CZ-2D Chang Zheng-2D (Long March 2D) launch vehicle from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. Launch took place at 07:10 UTC. The new satellite will be used for mapping using stereo-topographic techniques from orbit.

Continuing what is expected to be a launch surge for the second half of 2010, China has launched a new remote sensing satellite on Tuesday, the sixth Chinese launch this year. YaoGan Weixing-10 was launched via a CZ-4C Chang Zheng-4C (Long March) launch vehicle at 06:49 local time on August 10 from the Taiyuan Satellite [...]

China launched its fifth satellite as part of its GPS satellite navigation system, with BeiDou-2 IGSO-1 placed into orbit via the CZ-3A Chang Zheng-3A (CZ3A-17/Y16) launch vehicle. Launch from the Xi Chang Satellite Launch Center, in Sichuan Province occured at 5:30am local time on Sunday.

Continuing its launch surge for 2010, China has launched a new satellite, the SJ-12 – or Shi Jian-12 – on June 15 using a CZ-2D Chang Zheng-2D (Long March 2D) launch vehicle from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. Launch took place at 9:39am local time.

China launched a new navigation satellite on Wednesday, using a CZ-3C Chang Zheng-3C (CZ3C-4/Y4) launch vehicle from the Xi Chang satellite Launch Center, in Sichuan Province. Launch took place at 15:53 UTC, as the new BeiDou-2 (Compass-G3) series continues to build the Compass constellation – joining three other satellites already orbit.

China has launched a new “remote sensing” spacecraft – actually believed to be another spy satellite – on Friday. YaoGan Weixing-9 was launched at 04:55 (GMT) on March 5, via a CZ-4C Chang Zheng-4C – a launch vehicle that was debuting operations out of the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. Meanwhile, China has announced a major ramp [...]

The Chinese have opened their 2010 campaign by orbiting a navigation satellite via a CZ-3C Chang Zheng-3C (CZ3C-3) launch vehicle from the Xi Chang satellite Launch Center, in Sichuan Province. Previously scheduled to take place last year, the launch of the new BeiDou-2 (Compass-G1) finally took place at 16:12 UTC on Saturday.

China have launched the YaoGan Weinxing-8 “remote sensing” satellite via a CZ-4C Chang Zheng-4C from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center early on Tuesday. The final launch of the year is being classed as an Earth Monitoring satellite by the Chinese media. However, experts have revealed the bird is the latest to be equipped with reconnaissance [...]

The Chinese have suffered a problem during the launch of the Indonesian Palapa-D communications satellite via a CZ-3B Chang Zheng-3B (CZ3B-12) launch vehicle. The launch took place at the Xi Chang Satellite Launch Center, in Sichuan Province on Monday at 09:28 UTC, but failed to place the spacecraft in the required orbit – due to [...]