China on Tuesday successfully launched two space environment exploration satellites, marking the 50th consecutive successful launch by the Communist giant since October 1996.
The two satellites were launched from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Centre in north China's Shanxi province with a Long March-4B carrier rocket.
One of the satellite was detached from the rocket after about 11 minutes of take-off, followed by the other about one minute later.
Both have successfully entered preset orbits, Xinhua news agency reported.
The two satellites, which form Group-02 of Shijian-6, were manufactured by the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology and China's DFH Satellite Co, Ltd.
Both have a designed life of more than two years.
They will replace two Shijian-6 satellites launched on September 9, 2004, to conduct exploration of space environment, radiation in space and their influence, parameters of physical environment of the space, and carry out other related space experiments.
Today's launch marked the 92th flight of Long March series of carrier rockets and the 50th consecutive successful launch of such rockets since October 1996.
In 1981 China became the fourth country in the world to be able to launch more than one satellite at the same time with just one rocket.
{{/usCountry}}In 1981 China became the fourth country in the world to be able to launch more than one satellite at the same time with just one rocket.
{{/usCountry}}China has succeeded in such launching for many times since then.
China is also set to launch a satellite on October 29 for direct satellite transmission services to homes.