China and Brazil signed in Brasilia on Wednesday a complementary protocol to continue their cooperation in land-resource surveillance satellite research and development.
Under the document, signed by Chinese Ambassador to Brazil Jiang Yuande and Brazilian Science and Technology Minister Ronaldo Sardenberg, the two countries will soon begin research and development projects for two new satellites, CBERS-3 and CBERS-4.
Their jointly-made CBERS-2 will be put into orbit in August- September 2003 to replace their first satellite launched in October 1999, Sardenberg said at the signing ceremony.
CBERS-2, developed by the China Space Technology Research Institute and the Brazilian National Institution for Space Investigation, is more sophisticated than the previous one, and will be used to detect the state of resources and environmental conditions, and provide data for space sciences.
"Sino-Brazilian satellite cooperation is a concrete example of strategic association between the two countries," said Sardenberg.
(People's Daily November 29, 2002)
