China successfully sent two satellites of ‘Macao Science 1,’ a space exploration program, into space on Sunday.

The China National Space Administration (CNSA) said the satellites were launched by a Long March-2C carrier rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in northwest China and entered the preset orbits successfully.

It was the 474th flight mission of the Long March carrier rocket series. The launch also sent a scientific experiment satellite named Luojia-2 into space.

Macao Science 1 takes a twin-satellite approach, Satellite A carries payloads like high-precision magnetometers to detect earth’s magnetic field while Satellite B is equipped with payloads like high-energy particle detectors and solar X-ray instruments to obtain space environment data.

Macao Science 1 has the capability to complement the observations made by Europe’s Swarm satellites and China’s first seismo-electromagnetic satellite, Zhangheng 1.

This collaborative effort allows for a more comprehensive understanding of earth’s low latitude magnetic field and space environment changes as well as facilitates the monitoring of the South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA).

According to the CNSA, Macao Science 1 is the first space science satellite programme jointly developed by the Chinese mainland and Macao. The project is the first scientific exploration satellite placed in a near-equatorial orbit to monitor the geomagnetic field and the space environment of the near-equator SAA.

Source – Xinhua News

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