Posted: Fri, May 25, 2007, 8:01 AM ET (1201 GMT)
A Long March rocket launched Friday a Chinese remote sensing satellite with potential military applications. The Long March 2D rocket lifted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center at 3:12 am EDT (0712 GMT, 3:12 pm Beijing time) and placed the Yaogan 2 satellite into orbit. The satellite wil be used for a variety of remote sensing applications, according to official Chinese media reports. Other reports identify the spacecraft as a synthetic aperture radar spacecraft, which can observe terrain both day and night and through adverse weather conditions. Also on board the launch was a one-kilogram picosatellite built by Zheijiang University to test microelectronics.

Related Links:

•  Xinhua article
•  NASA SpaceFlight.com article