China launches new weather satellite satellite, weather, launches, China, new

peter236

English.news.cn 2010-11-05

TAIYUAN, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- China launched a new meteorological satellite early Friday morning, from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in northern China's Shanxi Province.

A Long March-4C carrier rocket carried the satellite, the second of China's Fengyun-3 (FY-3) series, into space at 2:37 a.m. (Beijing Time).

The satellite entered the sun-synchronous preset orbit 19 minutes later, according to data sent by the Xi'an Satellite Control Center in northwestern Shaanxi Province.

After in-orbit testing, the launch center will hand over control of the satellite to the National Satellite Meteorological Center under the China Meteorological Administration.

A statement of the launch center said the satellite was equipped with a dozen advanced detectors and was able to carry out a three-dimensional, all-weather, multi-spectrum quantitative detection to acquire data from the ground surface, the ocean and space.

The satellite would form a network with the first FY-3 satellite, launched May 27, 2008, to improve China's meteorological observation and medium-range weather forecast capabilities, it said.

The FY-3 series would continue to play an important role in monitoring natural disasters and environment, and researching environment and climate change and disaster prevention and reduction.

Both the satellite and the rocket were developed by the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology affiliated to the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation.

The launch was the 134th mission of China's Long March series of rockets since April 24, 1970, when a Long March-1 rocket successfully sent China's first satellite Dongfanghong-1 into the space.

China will launch a total of 12 satellites of the FY-3 series and six of the FY-4 series by 2020.

Editor: yan

tiffiant

explosion in space?

peter236

China launching spacecraft at record rate

http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2010/11/05/China-launching-spacecraft-at-record-rate/UPI-27841288998940/

BEIJING, Nov. 5 (UPI) -- China put a navigation satellite in orbit in the 12th space launch of the year, eclipsing its own record for most space missions in a year, authorities said.

The launch Sunday of a Long March rocket broke the country's record of 11 launches of human, scientific and military missions China set in 2008, SPACE.com reported.

In addition to navigation satellites, China has launched three military reconnaissance satellites, a mapping satellite, a broadcasting satellite and its Chang 2 moon probe.

The record for this year could reach 15 as China plans three more launches by the end of December.

A weather satellite set for launch this month could be followed by another communications satellite and a navigation satellite before the end of the year, SPACE.com said.

The record launch rate comes as NASA and China open a joint dialogue on potential space cooperation inaugurated by NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden's visit to China last month.