Full coverage: Successful Launch of Long March-7 Rocket

China's new generation Long March-7 carrier rocket has just been launched. The rocket further boosts China's ability to launch more satellites, and benefit more people.

China is speeding up satellite launches while expanding its launch vehicle family. Long March 7 is China’s latest middle-sized launch vehicle. Over the next two years, there will be 60 launches using Long March vehicles.

“We are sending up our space rockets: the modified Yuanzheng 1 and Yuanzheng 2 along with Long March 7 and Long March 5 that are due to launch between September and October. In the meantime, we are also sending up our new experimental satellite into orbit,” said Ma Zhibin, China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology.

Because of its growing technical abilities, China is launching more satellites to build a system of space services, such as the Beidou system. Beijing plans to launch 35 BDS satellites by 2020 and to form a systematic service for navigation, positioning and communication. China will also work together with other countries, regions and international organizations to promote global satellite navigation development.

Space industry is believed to be the fourth scientific tide which introduced more business models and the merging of different industries. It has also attracted more attention from civil companies.

“The Beidou system is reaching the top level in navigation and positioning. And the remote sensing satellites also save us from buying services from abroad,” said Yuan Minhui, director of Beijing Institute of Space Science & Technology Information.

Services that were once expensive and rare are now cheaper and convenient. And more applications are being introduced that will benefit civil companies and citizens, such as weather forecasting, fishery supervision, environmental protection and so on.