China Churns Out Yet Another Launch with Flight of BeiDou-2 I7 Navigation Satellite

On Monday, July 9, China utilized a Long March 3A rocket to send the BeiDou-2 I7 satellite on its way to orbit. The flight marked the second successful launch in less than two days – and added another spacecraft to the nation’s homegrown BeiDou satellite navigation system.The launch of the BeiDou-2 I7 spacecraft was conducted some 17 hours after the country’s space agency used a Long March 2C rocket to deliver a dual payload for Pakistan.The launch of Long March 3A took place at 20:58 GMT (4:58 p.m. EDT) from Launch Complex 2 located at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center (XSLC) in China’s Sichuan Province.The mission had originally been slated to get underway on July 19 but apparently Beijing decided to conduct the launch ten days earlier than scheduled. As usual, Chinese media remain silent about the cause of this reschedule.The details about pre-launch preparations and the flight itself were also under an informational embargo. What is known is that after launch, the Long March 3A rocket started its short vertical climb before turning southeasterly to fly over mainland China, toward the South China Sea. The whole flight most likely lasted a few hours as the payload was delivered into ...