Latest Long March rocket makes debut

Carrier rocket places four satellites in orbit after launch from Taiyuan center

The Long March 6C, the latest member of China's Long March carrier rocket family, conducted its debut flight on Tuesday morning, sending four small satellites into space.

The 43-meter-tall rocket blasted off at 11:21 am from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in a mountainous part of Shanxi province and placed four satellites — a radar satellite, an optical remote-sensing satellite, and two experimental satellites — into their preset orbits, according to the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology, the developer of the rocket model and a subsidiary of State-owned conglomerate China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp.

The two-stage launch vehicle has a diameter of 3.35 meters and is propelled by three engines consuming liquid oxygen and kerosene.