China launched a new group of seven satellites during an offshore mission at 2:37 p.m. on Thursday.

A Smart Dragon-3 (SD-3) carrier rocket lifted off from waters near the coast of Yangjiang, south China's Guangdong Province, sending Pakistan's PRSC-EO2 remote-sensing satellite, an AI-equipped Earth observation satellite designed by the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and five other satellites into planned orbit.

The Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in north China's Shanxi Province undertook the launch, which marked the ninth flight of the Smart Dragon-3 rocket.