China successfully sent an earth resource satellite, the second
ZY-2, into orbit yesterday with a Chinese Long-March IV-B carrier
rocket.
The rocket blasted off at 11:17 am yesterday from the Taiyuan
Launching Center in North China's Shanxi Province. Sources said the
satellite is operating smoothly.
The launch was made on a sunny day. A little more than 10 minutes
later, the 45-metre-long carrier rocket and the satellite were
separated. Soon after that, the Satellite Monitoring Center in
Xi'an, capital of Northwest China's Shaanxi Province, reported that
the satellite had entered its solar-synchronous orbit and was in
good condition.
The new satellite is a transmitting-type remote sensing satellite
developed by the Chinese Institute of Space Technology under the
China Aerospace Science and Technology Company Group. It is mainly
intended for territorial surveys, environment monitoring and
protection, urban planning, crop yield assessment, disaster
monitoring and scientific experiments in space.
China launched a satellite of the same type in September 2000, the
first ZY-2, that is still operating normally. Chinese scientists
said the new satellite is superior to the previous one in its
overall properties and technological level.
The Long-March IV-B carrier rocket was developed by the Shanghai
Aerospace Technology Research Institute under the China Aerospace
Science and Technology Company Group. It has been launched
successfully four times before.
According to a Chinese expert in charge of the monitoring of such
launches, China has formed a complete and modern system for
aerospace launching.
He
said China's three aerospace launching sites in Jiuquan (Gansu
Province), Taiyuan (Shanxi Province) and Xichang (Sichuan Province)
now are capable of launching spacecraft into high, medium and low
orbits. In addition, China put a manned spacecraft launching site
into official use in 1998.
China has also established an internationally advanced aerospace
monitoring system based on both land and sea.
(Xinhua News
Agency October 28, 2002)