China Launches Shiyan-13 in First Chinese Launch of 2022

On Monday, January 17 at 10:35am local time (02:35 UTC/January at 9:35 pm ET), China launched the classified Shiyan-13 satellite atop a Long March 2D (locally called Chang Zheng 2D) rocket from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in China. the Shiyan satellites are classified satellites testing technologies for future satellites. The first launch of a Shiyan satellite occurred in 2005. This launch was the first of many Chinese launches in 2022, including new Chinese space station modules and a couple of crewed launches. Both China and SpaceX want to have the most launches this year, so we'll see who has the most. Last year, SpaceX had 31 launches and China had 56. This was the 4th orbital attempt of 2022 and the 58th launch of Long March 2D.