Construction of the country's latest generation ocean-going aerospace survey ship has formally kicked off in eastern China's Jiangnan Shipyard, the Xinhua News Agency has reported.

Along with its sister vessel, which has been under construction for four months, the ship is expected to boost Chinese maritime aerospace tracking and surveying capabilities to a higher level, according to a director of China's Satellite Maritime Telemetric Tracking and Command Department.

The twin ships, both designed and built solely by China, have adopted a series of the latest technologies, ranging from marine meteorology mechanisms to optics and computers.

Besides basic tracking tasks, the ships can also send instant messages and exchange data with the home base.

The director says the ship is extraordinarily seaworthy, able to cruise smoothly even in a 12th degree typhoon. It can also go anywhere within the sea area between 60 degrees in both northern and southern latitudes.

A C-band pulse modulator radar, and S-band and C-band integrated telemetric systems will be jointly installed on deck for the first time in the history of building such ships.

The vessels consist of four integrated systems, the ship's body, telemetry, communications and marine meteorology and an advanced data transferring platform which will make it convenient to share information between different systems via fiber-optic channels.

In addition, facilities used for staff relaxation have also been taken into consideration. After work, seamen can exercise or engage in their favorite pastimes in specifically designed cabins.

The director says China's booming aerospace exploration program has become much more demanding for support from telemetric teams in complicated launches for certain types of satellites running in different orbits. And he is confident about the ships' future performance.

There are four "Yuanwang" class survey ships currently serving in China's maritime aerospace telemetric fleet. The ship group has traveled to the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian oceans 48 times and completed 53 maritime tracking and surveying tasks as of last year, playing an important role in China's manned spaceflight missions.

(CRI May 13, 2006)