China on Thursday launched a Long March-2D rocket to place a group of eight satellites in space.

Satellite Jilin-1 Kuanfu 01C, together with seven Jilin-1 Gaofen 03D satellites, lifted off at 10:38 a.m. (Beijing Time) from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in the northern province of Shanxi and soon entered its preset orbit.

Having a wide coverage, Jilin-1 Kuanfu 01C is an upgraded type of its predecessors 01A and 01B. It has a swath width of more than 150 kilometers, and will be used to provide commercial remote sensing data for sectors such as land resource, mineral exploration and smart city construction.

On the same day, the Kuanfu 01C satellite sent back its first batch of photos, according to the satellite's maker, Chang Guang Satellite Technology Co., Ltd. (CGSTL) based in Changchun City, northeast China's Jilin Province.

This was the 419th flight mission of the Long March rocket series.

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