Second Launch of China’s Long March 5, July 2017, Hainan Island, China

China will conduct the second launch of its new heavy lift Long March 5 rocket — Y2 — on July 2, 2017.   Andrew Jones of gbtimes.com tweets that launch is expected about 11:20 GMT (7:20 am ET).  It will lift off from the new Wenchang Satellite Launch Center on Hainan Island.

The payload is the Shijian-18 experimental communications satellite destined for geostationary orbit.  China’s CCTV television network reports that it is the largest satellite ever to be launched by China. The Long March 5, China’s most capable rocket, can life 25 metric tons to low Earth orbit or 14 metric tons to geostationary orbit.

CCTV may provide live coverage of the launch.