Sharjah 24 – SPA: China successfully launched the Beijing-3B Earth remote sensing satellite using the Long March 2D carrier rocket on Wednesday, Sputnik quoted the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) as said.

The launch took place at 11:01 local time (03:01 GMT) from the Taiyuan space field located in China's northern province of Shanxi. The satellite successfully entered the planned orbit, the space agency said.

Beijing-3B will be mainly used to provide telemetry data for such services as land management, agricultural resources research and environmental monitoring.

The flight marked the 434th launch using Long March rocket series.

In 2021, China set a new national record of 55 space launches per year. The previous record of 39 launches was first registered in 2018 and then repeated in 2020. Meanwhile, the record holder for the number of space launches per year is the Soviet Union, with 108 flights registered in 1982. It is followed by the United States with 77 launches in 1966.