Wenchang City, Hainan Province, south China - July 29, 2026 (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
1. Long March-7A carrier rocket blasting off, ascending

China successfully sent a new data relay satellite into orbit from the Wenchang Space Launch Site in south China's Hainan Province on Wednesday.

The Tianlian III-01 satellite was launched at 19:50 Beijing Time on Wednesday (2350 GMT on Tuesday) aboard a Long March-7A carrier rocket and entered its planned orbit.

The Tianlian III-01 is primarily designed to provide data relay and telemetry, tracking and command services for crewed spacecraft such as spaceships, space laboratories and space stations, for medium- and low-Earth-orbit resource satellites.

This was the 659th flight mission of the Long March carrier rocket series.