Posted: Sun, Apr 28, 2013, 10:41 AM ET (1441 GMT)
A Chinese Long March rocket launched the first in a new series of earth observation satellites on Friday. The Long March 2D rocket lifted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center at 12:13 am EDT (0413 GMT, 12:13 pm Beijing time) Friday and placed the Gaofen 1 spacecraft and three other satellites into sun-synchronous orbits. Gaofen 1 is the first of a planned constellation of up to six spacecraft designed to provide high-resolution images for land resources, disaster management, and other applications. The rocket's other three payloads were nanosatellites from Arngentina, Ecuador, and Turkey

Related Links:

•  Spaceflight Now article
•  NASASpaceFlight.com article
•  RIA Novosti article
•  Xinhua article