Artistic rendition of the Shijian-16 satellite.

Rui C. Barbosa has posted an article entitled Chinese conduct surprise Long March 4B launch with Shijian-16-2 on the NASA Spaceflight.com infosite.

The news story reports that China conducted another orbital launch, this time orbiting the Shijian-16 (#2) satellite via the Long March-4B (Chang Zheng-4B) rocket. The launch took place from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center at 03:21 UTC on Wednesday, lifting off from the 603 platform at Launch Complex 43.

Little information was available about the incoming launch, with NOTAM’s only appearing a few days before the event. However, this only hinted at the launch of a bird to be placed in a 75 degree orbit. A previous launch to use this inclination from Jiuquan included the launch of Shijian-16 on October 25, 2013.

Following launch, Chinese State media did confirm the satellite was the second Shijian-16 satellite, to be used for “space environment measurements and technology testing.” NORAD reported an object orbiting in a 595 x 616 km x 75.01 degree orbit, similar to the previous Shijian-16.

The Shijian-16 spacecraft are technology satellites used to probe the space environment, radiation and its effects, record space physical environment parameters, and conduct other related space experiments.

To read the entire NASA Spaceflight.com article, please access this direct link...