China on Wednesday launched 16 new satellites into space from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in the country’s Shanxi province, according to local media.

These satellites include — Jilin 1 Gaofen 03D09 satellite and Yunyao 1 04-08 and were launched by a Long March 6 carrier rocket at 12:50 pm in China (12:20am IST) and entered the planned orbit successfully, China Daily reported.

According to media reports, the new batch of satellites is mainly used in the fields such as commercial remote sensing and atmospheric imaging.

Earlier on July 16, China launched a Long March-2C carrier rocket to place two satellites in space, Global Times reported. The pair of satellites include —  Siwei 03 and 04, were lifted from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in the northern province of Shanxi.

China also launched Wentian, the first lab module of its space station.

As per local media, the new module will function both as a backup of the core module and as a powerful scientific experiment platform.

China’s Shenzhou-13 mission last year was a major step for the country’s young space programme, which is rapidly becoming one of the world’s most advanced.

According to CNN, China’s space programme was established in the early 1970s, years after American astronaut Neil Armstrong had already landed on the moon.

Aided by the economic reforms of the 1980s, China’s space programme progressed until the launch of the first crewed mission in 2003. The Chinese have since invested billions of dollars into the space programme — and the payoff has been evident.

China successfully landed an exploratory rover on the moon in December 2020 and one on Mars in May 2021.