At 2:31 p.m. Beijing Time on 20 October 2014, China launched the Yaogan-22 remote sensing satellite into orbit from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center (TSLC). The TSLC is employed mainly for polar launches, such as meteorological, Earth resources and scientific satellites.
Yaogan Weixing satellites use optical and synthetic aperture radar (SAR) sensors. They are intended for land survey, scientific experiments, crop yield assessment and disaster monitoring. The Chinese media platform Xinhuanet announced that "the satellite will be used for scientific experiments, natural resource surveying, estimating crop yields and disaster relief".
The launch represents the 195th mission for the Long March rocket family and the 207th Chinese orbital enterprise.
