Photo: People's Daily

China sent a new data relay satellite into orbit on Wednesday from the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site on the coast of the southern island province of Hainan.

The Tianlian III-01 satellite was launched at 7:50 p.m. (Beijing Time) aboard a Long March-7A carrier rocket. The satellite entered the preset orbit successfully.

Tianlian III-01 is primarily used to provide data relay and TT&C (telemetry, tracking, and command) services for crewed spacecraft such as spaceships, space laboratories and space stations, as well as for medium- and low-Earth-orbit resource satellites.

The launch marked the 659th mission of the Long March series carrier rockets.