On March 15 at 8:15 p.m. Beijing time (March 14 at 8:42 p.m. EDT; 5:42 p.m. PDT), China launched two satellites atop a Yuanzheng-1S mounted on a Long March-2C rocket. While the first and second stages were successful, a technical launch with the upper stage prevented the satellites from reaching their intended orbit. Several months of rescue attempts followed as Chinese engineers tried to find a solution, which included deorbiting the satellites so they would burn up in the atmosphere.
Chinese engineers used gravitational slingshots to rescue a pair of satellites
