At 11:22 on December 20, 2019, the Long March 4B carrier rocket successfully completed a one-rocket, nine-satellite launch mission at the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center. It sent the China-Brazil Earth Resources Satellite 04A and eight small satellites into space. All satellites entered their predetermined orbits smoothly, marking a complete success of the mission.

Among them, the China-Brazil Earth Resources Satellite 04A, the Tianqin-1 technology test satellite, and the Ethiopia-donated microsatellite under China’s South-South Cooperation project on addressing climate change were all developed under the overall lead of the Fifth Academy of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation. To date, the Fifth Academy has developed and launched 291 spacecraft in total.

    The Tianqin-1 technology test satellite was demonstrated and developed under the overall leadership of Sun Yat-sen University, in collaboration with Aerospace Dongfanghong Satellite Co., Ltd. and Huazhong University of Science and Technology. It is mainly used for the in-orbit verification of key technologies for space gravitational wave detection under the Tianqin Project, and is also capable of inverting the Earth’s long-wavelength gravity field model.