(Yicai Global) Nov. 6 -- China sent 13 satellites into orbit today, including the world’s very first sixth-generation communications test satellite.

The devices were put into space by a Long March-6 carrier rocket that blasted off from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center, China Central Television reported. Ten Argentina’s NewSat, Beihangxingsat-1, and Bayi 03 satellites were also on board, marking the first time that China's new-generation of carrier rocket has taken foreign satellites into space.

The 6G experimental satellite, named after the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, was jointly developed by Chengdu Guoxing Aerospace Technology, UESTC, and Beijing MinoSpace Technology. It will be used to verify the performance of 6G technology in space as the 6G frequency band will expand from the 5G millimeter wave frequency to the terahertz frequency.

The satellite is the first technical test of terahertz communication’s application in space, said Xu Yangsheng, an academician at the Chinese Academy of Engineering.

The technology is expected to be over 100 times faster than 5G, enabling lossless transmission in space to achieve long-distance communications with a smaller power output. The technology allows terahertz to be widely used in satellite internet, said Lu Chuan, head of the UESTC’s Institute of Satellite Industry Technology.

The satellite carries an optical remote sensing load system to monitor crop disasters, prevent forest fires, check forestry resources, and monitor water conservancy and mountain floods as well as provide abundant satellite images and data, Lu noted.