China launches 41 satellites at once, sets a new record

Beijing: China has launched 41 satellites in one single mission - the Long March 2D rocket and set a new national record for sending the most satellites into space at once.

These satellites are mainly aimed at commercial remote sensing services and related technology verification. 36 of them belong to the Jilin-1 series, China's first self-developed commercial remote-sensing satellite system. Now, there are a total of 109 Jilin-1 satellites which assemble China's first commercial constellation of more than 100 remote sensing satellites.

The first satellite in the Jilin-1 system was launched in 2015 and it weighed 420 kg. Now Beijing claims that the weight has been reduced to 22 kg in eight years.

He Xiaojun, chief designer of the Jilin-1 Gaofen 06A, said the weight reduction is due to upgraded image sensors, improved design techniques, and advanced integrated chips. "The changes do not affect the resolution of satellite images but expand their visible range by 50 percent. They also lower the cost to one-twentieth of previous satellites. Just like the evolution of computers, from bulky desktops to today's laptops and smartphones, the devices have been reduced in size due to technology upgrades, but the computing performance is improving."

According to a report in Xinhua, the rocket took off at 1.30 pm local time on Thursday from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Centre in Shanxi province. This comes mere weeks after China launched a three-person crew for its orbiting space nation with the goal of sending astronauts to the Moon by the end of the decade.

Beijing is also working on building relay satellites by 2030 to act as a communication bridge between missions to the moon and beyond and ground operations on Earth.