Posted: Fri, Dec 23, 2011, 12:03 PM ET (1703 GMT)
A Chinese rocket placed a high-resolution remote sensing satellite into orbit on Thursday. The Long March 4B rocket lifted off from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center at 10:26 pm EST Wednesday (0326 GMT, 11:26 am Beijing time Thursday) and placed the Ziyuan 2C satellite into a Sun-synchronous orbit. Chinese media described the satellite as a high-resolution imaging satellite that will be used for various civil applications. The launch was the 19th this year for China, one more than the United States, making 2011 the first year that China has performed more launches than the US.
