China launched the Gaofen 5-02 Earth-observation satellite on Tuesday morning at the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in Shanxi province.

The administration said the satellite was carried by a Long March 4C carrier rocket that blasted off at 11:01 am and then successfully entered orbit, marking the deployment of the 24th Gaofen-series spacecraft and the 387th flight of the Long March rocket fleet.

Developed by the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology based on its SAST3000 satellite platform, the Gaofen 5-02 is equipped with hyperspectral observational devices tasked with monitoring air, water and environments, according to China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp, the country's major space contractor and parent company of the academy.

Designers at the academy mounted seven imagers and sensors on that spacecraft that are capable of obtaining spatial, spectral and radioactive data.

The satellite's service will greatly strengthen the country's environmental protection efforts, improve its natural resources surveillance, improve disaster prevention and relief work and boost climate change research, the State-owned space conglomerate said.

China launched the Gaofen program in May 2010 and listed it as one of the 16 most important projects in the nation's science and technology industry. The program aims to form a space-based, high-resolution Earth-observation network. By now, 24 Gaofen satellites have been launched, and all of them are believed to be in active service.

Images and data from the Gaofen satellites have been widely used in more than 20 industries across China and have helped reduce the country's dependence on foreign remote-sensing products.

Registered users around the world can access images and data generated by Gaofen satellites via a website operated by the China National Space Administration.