China on Friday launched a Long March-11 rocket, placing a satellite in space.

The rocket blasted off at 2:17 p.m. Beijing Time from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China and sent the satellite Shiyan-21 into preset orbit.

Shiyan means "experiment" in Chinese. The newly launched Shiyan satellite will be used for in-orbit verification of new space technologies.

It was the 456th flight mission of the Long March series rockets.

On Monday, China launched two satellites for space environmental monitoring. 

(With input from Xinhua)