China sent four satellites into a preset orbit in one mission on Friday.

The Long March-2D rocket carrying the satellites blasted off at 11:03 a.m. Beijing time from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in north China's Shanxi Province.

Among them was the Beijing-3 satellite, a commercial remote sensing satellite developed by China Spacesat Co., Ltd. It is used mainly for resource investigation, ecological environment monitoring, urban management, and disaster prevention and mitigation.

The other three satellites will be used in researching marine ecological environment observation, asteroid resource exploration, and in-orbit service teaching and training.

The mission is the 373rd of the Long March carrier rocket series.