TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — China launched a satellite over southern Taiwan airspace on Tuesday (Jan. 9) afternoon.

A "Presidential Alert" in the form of a text message was sent to phones across Taiwan. In Mandarin, the message said that at 3:04 p.m., China launched a satellite over the airspace of southern Taiwan.

In English, the message read "Air raid Alert" for a "missile flyover Taiwan airspace," and warned the public to "beware." It said if an "unknown object is found," the public should notify the fire department personnel to handle it.

The message was quickly followed by a correction that it was a satellite launched over Taiwan's southern airspace. An hour later, the defense ministry issued an apology for using the English term "missile" in the first message rather than "satellite."

China's state-run newspaper People's Daily announced that a satellite dubbed the Einstein Probe was launched into space aboard a Long March-C rocket from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Sichuan Province, China.