China successfully launched the 33rd and 34th Beidou navigation satellites

At 9:48 on July 29, 2018, China successfully launched the 33rd and 34th Beidou navigation satellites with the Long March 3B carrier rocket (and the upper stage of the Expedition 1) in the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in the way of "one rocket and two satellites". These two satellites belong to the mid circle earth orbit satellites and are the ninth and tenth networking satellites of the Beidou-3 system in China.

After more than 3 hours of flight, the satellite entered the working orbit after orbit control and phase acquisition. Later, integration test and test evaluation will be carried out, and networking operation will be carried out with the eight Beidou-3 navigation satellites previously launched.

According to the plan, a basic system consisting of 18 Beidou-3 satellites will be built by the end of the year to provide services for countries along the "Belt and Road". Since the launch, the Beidou satellite networking launch has entered an unprecedented high density period.

The Beidou navigation satellite and supporting carrier rocket (and the upper stage of Expedition 1) launched this time were respectively developed by the China Academy of Space Technology and the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology, affiliated to China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation. This is the 281st flight of the Long March series carrier rocket.

Zhang Xueyu, director of the Xichang Satellite Launch Center, said that this launch was the 10th space launch mission successfully completed by the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in the first half of the year. It was also the first launch of Beidou-3 from the simplest system to the basic system. By the end of the year, the basic system of Beidou-3 had been established. The center will also carry out seven space launch missions, which will break the center's launch record this year.