A Long March-3B rocket carrying the Fengyun-4 satellite blasts off from the launching pad at Xichang Satellite Launch Center, southwest China's Sichuan Province, Dec. 11, 2016. China launched the weather satellite at 12:11 a.m. Sunday, marking an upgrade of China's meteorological satellites in geostationary orbit. The Fengyun-4 satellite, the first of China's second-generation weather satellites in geostationary orbit to have been launched, is also the country's first quantitative remote-sensing satellite in high orbit. China achieved major breakthroughs in scientific and technological development in 2016.(Xinhua/Chen Jianli)
