Two new remote sensing satellite groups reached orbit from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, a spaceport that has anchored China’s space programme since 1958 and marked its own launch on a Long March rocket family now flying roughly one mission a week.
CHINA LAUNCHES YAOGAN-53 AND YAOGAN-56 GROUPS ON LONG MARCH’S 666TH FLIGHT
China launched the Yaogan-53 and Yaogan-56 satellite groups from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in China’s northwest at 5:00pm Beijing time on Thursday 10 September, aboard a Long March-4B carrier rocket, with both groups entering their preset orbits successfully. China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), the state-owned contractor that builds and operates the Long March family, describes the satellites as intended primarily for scientific experiments, land and resources surveys, crop yield estimation, and disaster prevention and reduction, consistent with the general remote-sensing role China has assigned to the Yaogan series since the programme’s first launch in April 2006.
A RAPID-FIRE LAUNCH CADENCE
CASC recorded this as the 666th mission of the Long March rocket family. China’s own reporting of its 600th Long March mission placed that milestone in mid-October 2025, which means CASC has flown roughly 66 further Long March missions in the eleven months since, a cadence of close to six launches a month and among the fastest sustained rates any national launch programme has achieved. Both Yaogan-53 and Yaogan-56 flew from Jiuquan, the oldest of China’s four satellite launch centres, established in 1958 and the site from which China launched its first satellite, Dong Fang Hong I, in 1970. Jiuquan remains the exclusive launch site for all of China’s crewed missions, including every Shenzhou flight to the Tiangong space station, alongside its continuing role launching satellites into low and medium Earth orbit; CASC’s own figures put the site’s total launch count at 265 across 15 launch pads as of 2026.
Note: WAN was unable to identify a CASC or other Chinese government source giving individual technical specifications, mass, or orbital altitude for the Yaogan-53 or Yaogan-56 satellites; China’s official announcements for these launches are characteristically brief by comparison with the detailed press kits typically issued by Western and commercial launch providers.
Source and Images: China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC)
