A QUANTUM LEAP

A rocket carrying the worlds first quantum communication satellite， Micius， blasts off at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Gansu Province on August 16.

The satellite， developed by the Chinese Academy of Sciences， is named after an ancient Chinese scientist.

Circling the Earth once every 90 minutes along a sun-synchronous orbit at an altitude of 500 km， Micius is designed to enable hack-proof quantum communication by transmitting undecipherable information.