China’s homemade rocket series completes 400 space missions

By Riyaz ul Khaliq

ISTANBUL (AA) - China’s locally built Long March rocket series completed its 400th mission on Friday.

A new group of satellites was successfully sent into space with a Long March-4B rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern China, the China Space Agency said.

“The satellites, Shijian-6 05, were launched by a Long March-4B rocket at 8.11 a.m. (0011GMT) and have entered the planned orbit successfully. They will be used for space exploration and new technology tests,” read a statement.

The launch marked the 400th mission of the Long March series carrier rockets, the agency said.

China launched its first Long March carrier rocket into space in 1970.

“The Long March rocket has carried out 92.1% of the country’s space launch missions in 51 years, sending more than 700 spacecraft into space, with a launch success rate of 96.25%,” the agency added.

“Among the 400 launches, the first three 100 launches took 37 years, seven and a half years, and more than four years, respectively, while the latest 100 launches took only 33 months from March 10, 2019 to the present.”