Posted: Sat, Jun 27, 2015, 10:54 AM ET (1454 GMT)
A Long March rocket placed what Chinese officials said was a civil remote sensing satellite into orbit Friday. The Long March 4B rocket lifted off from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center at 2:22 am EDT (0622 GMT, 2:22 pm Beijing time) Friday and placed the Gaofen-8 satellite into a sun-synchronous orbit. The satellite is said to provide high-resolution images for civilian applications, although earlier reports about the Gaofen system said it would consist of only seven satellites. The launch was not announced in advance by the Chinese government.

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