China's Long March 7A rocket puts satellite in orbit

The newest type in China's carrier rocket family – Long March 7A – made its first successful flight at the Wenchang Space Launch Center in Hainan province early Friday morning, sending a technology demonstration satellite into space.

The 60.1-meter colossal rocket blasted off from a launch pad in the coastal launch center at 1:51 am, and soon deployed the New Technology Demonstrator 9 experimental satellite into orbit, according to a statement from China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp, the nation's leading space contractor.

The mission marked the 362nd flight of the Long March rocket series and also the second by the Long March 7A. Its first flight failed in March 2020 due to malfunctions.

According to the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology in Beijing, the Long March 7A has a liftoff weight of 573 metric tons and a core-stage diameter of 3.35 meters. It is capable of placing a 7-ton spacecraft to geosynchronous transfer orbit.

A subsidiary of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp, the academy is the major rocket developer in the country.

The rocket is tasked with sending satellites to high-altitude orbits such as the geosynchronous transfer and inclined geosynchronous orbits. It can also be used to carry out missions to the moon, Mars or asteroids, designers said.

A lot of China's Beidou navigation satellites and communication satellites are traveling in the geosynchronous transfer orbit.

Research and development of the new rocket took 22 months since May 2018 and were based on the Long March 7, which is tasked with sending cargo spaceships to China's future space station.

Meng Gang, Long March 7A's project manager, said the service of Long March 7A will encourage and boost the development and deployment of large, heavy satellites.