Jason DavisJun 25, 2016

Quick multimedia roundup: China's new rocket blasts off on inaugural mission

China's new Long March 7 rocket blasted off on its inaugural mission today at 8:00 p.m. Beijing time (12:00 UTC, 7:00 a.m. EDT). The rocket successfully placed a small-scale human spaceflight capsule demonstrator into orbit, which will reportedly land near the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Inner Mongolia tomorrow.

You can read our preview story about the Long March 7 flight, which also christened China's new Wenchang Satellite Launch Center on Hainan, here: 

All about China's new rocket and spaceport, which may see action this Saturday

Here's a quick multimedia roundup:

Long March 7 inaugural liftoff
Long March 7 inaugural liftoff Image: Xinhuanet.com
Long March 7 clears the launch tower
Long March 7 clears the launch tower Image: Xinhuanet.com

Here are the video highlights from CCTV news:

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And here's a repost of the full launch:

A local tourist also captured a really nice video (NASASpaceflight.com editor Chris Bergin says this was one of his website's members; kudos as usual to NSF for their worldwide reach):

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Finally, don't miss more pictures from Chinese social media in the Twitter feeds of Andrew Jones and China Space Report; I'd post those images here but since I don't have direct links to the sources, I'm less certain about any copyright restrictions.

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