China on Sunday launched a Long March-2D carrier rocket, placing a remote sensing satellite in space. The rocket blasted off at 7:45 a.m. (Beijing Time) from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in the southwestern province of Sichuan and sent the Yaogan-42 02 satellite into the preset orbit. It was the 517th flight mission of the Long March series of rockets.

China's Long March-2D is a two-stage liquid-propellant carrier rocket with a liftoff thrust of 300 tonnes. It is designed to launch single and multiple satellites into various orbits from the country's three major satellite launch centers in Jiuquan, Taiyuan and Xichang. It can deliver 1.3-tonne payloads to a Sun-synchronous orbit 700 kilometers above the Earth.