HELSINKI — China launched the latest in a series of clandestine satellites Thursday, using the country’s most powerful rocket to send the spacecraft to geosynchronous transfer orbit.

A Long March 5 with an elongated payload fairing lifted off at 10:30 a.m. Eastern (1430 UTC) Oct. 23 from Wenchang Satellite Launch Center on the island province of Hainan, south China. The rocket, currently China’s most powerful, climbed into the night sky above the coastal spaceport, piercing a layer of cloud.

The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), announced launch success just under an hour after launch, revealing the payload to be the Communications Technology Experimental Satellite-20 (Tongxin Jishu Shiyan-20 or TJS-20). The launch was likely inserted into geosynchronous transfer

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