BEIJING, June 16. /TASS/. China has successfully placed into an orbit the Shijian-31 satellite designed to monitor the space environment, Xinhua News Agency reports.

The launch took place on Tuesday at 05:45 pm local time (10:45 am GMT) from the Xichang Space Center in southwestern Sichuan Province. The spacecraft was delivered to the orbit by the Long March-3B launch vehicle (the Long March series). The main task of the spacecraft is reported to be monitoring and studies of the space environment.