China was successful in its launch of its first  X- ray space telescope to study black holes, pulsars and gamma-ray bursts.

The launch was conducted on Thursday from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China's Gobi Desert at 11:00 am (3:00 GMT). The 2.5-tonne Telescope was carried into orbit by a Long March-4B rocket.

The space telescope is a Hard X-ray Modulation Telescope (HXMT), aptly named ‘Insight’ which will allow Chinese scientists to observe magnetic fields and the interiors of pulsars and better understand the evolution of black holes.

The official news agency, Xinhua said that the telescope will also help scientists search for gamma-ray bursts corresponding to gravitational waves and study how to pulsars can be used for spacecraft navigation.

This successful launch will give a boost to China’s multi-billion-dollar space programme. Earlier this year, China had successfully docked its first cargo spacecraft, with an orbiting space lab - a key development toward China's goal of having its own crewed space station by 2022.

It has been China’s long-term goal to send humans to the moon and as a means to achieve this goal, it opened a "Lunar Palace" laboratory on Earth to simulate a moon-like environment and house students for up to 200 days.