Without previous warning or announcement, China’s space agency launched two satellites from Launch Complex 16 at the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center on Wednesday, August 4. The two payloads, called “KL-Beta-A” and “KL-Beta-B,” launched on a Chang Zheng 6 rocket into a sun-synchronous orbit (SSO) at 11:01 UTC.
This marked the 27th launch from China in 2021 and came just hours after the failed launch of a Hyperbola-1 rocket on August 3 and before the planned launch of a Chang Zheng 3 B/E rocket on August 5.