Posted: Sat, Dec 27, 2014, 11:53 AM ET (1653 GMT)
A Long March rocket placed the latest in a series of military reconnaissance satellites into orbit on Saturday. The Long March 4B rocket lifted off from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center at 10:22 pm EST Friday (0322 GMT, 11:22 Beijing time Saturday) carrying the Yaogan-26 satellite. As is standard practice, the Chinese media reported the satellite to be a spacecraft designed for civil remote sensing and scientific experiments. However, such satellites are widely believed in the West to be used primarily for military reconnaissance, in this case imaging.
