China launched its new rocket for the first time. The Long March 5 is China's biggest rocket. The rocket lifted off from the Wenchang space center on November 3. China launched its largest rocket so far, the Long March 5. The new heavy-lift rocket made its maiden ascent from the China Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site on Hainan Island, off the southern coast of China at 20:43 local time (12:43 GMT).
According to astronomy news site Space.com, science magazine New Scientist, and the news organization BBC News, although Chinese space officials have not released any information regarding the initial mission of the Long March 5, the rocket is thought to be carrying an experimental satellite designed to test electric-propulsion technology, known as Shijian-17 which will be placed into orbit around the Earth. The actual main goal of the flight was simply to verify that the rocket indeed works.
China takes another huge step forward in its ambitious plans for space with the launch of the new Chinese heavy-lift rocket. The Long March 5 allows China to lift to orbit the heaviest of payloads such as big telecommunications satellites and large modules that form the sections of the 60-ton space station that the Chinese space agency plans to build and be fully functional by 2022.
If all goes according to plan with the Long March 5, another mission will take place as soon as 2018, to launch the planned space station into low Earth orbit. The Long March 5 is seen by China as a vital component in its plans of not only a Chinese permanent space station but also for Chang'e-5, a robotic sample-return mission to the moon to be launched next year as Chinese space officials have said, as well as a Mars orbiter and rover in 2020.
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