China launches Einstein Probe Satellite in orbit

Agency Report

China, on Tuesday, revealed the successful launch of a satellite into space.

China’s state broadcaster, CCTV, in a report narrated: “at 3:03pm Beijing time, (0703 GMT), on January 9, 2024, China successfully launched the Einstein Probe satellite.”

According to the CCTV, the Einstein Probe set off from the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre in southwestern Sichuan province, around 2,000 kilometres (1,243 miles) from Taiwan’s capital Taipei.

CCTV disclosed that the satellite was launched “using the Long March-2C carrier rocket… and the satellite entered its designated orbit”.

State-news agency, Xinhua, disclosed on Tuesday that the satellite will “observe mysterious transient phenomena in the universe comparable to the flickering of fireworks”; with set goal to unveil “the violent and little-known aspects of the cosmos.”

Scientist Yuan Weimin, who led the project, was quoted by state media as describing it as the “most beautiful satellite I’ve ever seen”.

President Xi Jinping of China, in his curiousity about “space”, has led China to spend billions of dollars into its military-run space programme to catch up with the United States and Russia.

An annual report by the US Department of Defense to Congress last year estimated that China had conducted 60 successful space launches, putting 180 satellites in orbit in 2022.

That report also placed China in second place behind the United States in terms of operational satellites.