China launches new data relay satellite

China successfully sent a new data relay satellite into orbit from the Wenchang Space Launch Site in south China’s Hainan Province on Wednesday. The Tianlian III-01 satellite was launched aboard a Long March-7A carrier rocket and entered its planned orbit.

The Tianlian III-01 is primarily designed to provide data relay and telemetry, tracking and command services for crewed spacecraft such as spaceships, space laboratories and space stations, for medium- and low-Earth-orbit resource satellites. This was the 659th flight mission of the Long March carrier rocket series.