NuSat-3 (C)EcoruSpace.me
Chinese astronomy satellite placed into orbit by Long March rocket
June 15, 2017. China's first X-ray astronomy satellite launched Thursday
on a mission to survey the Milky Way galaxy for black holes and pulsars,
the remnants left behind after a star burns up its nuclear fuel.
HXMT (C)ChinaSpace-Astronomy
The Hard X-ray Modulation Telescope (HXMT), or Insight, satellite has
been launched succesefully at 11 a.m. on 15 June 2017 from Jiuquan, China.
Li Tipei, the CAS academician who first proposed the satellite in the
early 1990s, said Chinese scientists could have made many great scientific
discoveries if it had been launched within 10 years of first being mooted.
Even so, he is confident the satellite can make new findings. "Our satellite
has advantages in detecting transient phenomena and X-ray explosions of
celestial bodies. And its functions have expanded, as its developers added
more detectors so it can cover a broader range of energy," Li said.