China puts two satellites into orbit

China puts wo satellites into orbit
Tuesday, October 21, 2003 Posted: 1430 GMT (10:30 PM HKT)

BEIJING, China (Reuters) — Less than a week after putting its first man into space, China rocketed two satellites into orbit on Tuesday, including one jointly developed with Brazil to study the Earth’s surface, the official Xinhua news agency said.

A Long March IV B rocket carried an Earth resources satellite developed jointly by China and Brazil — the second of four that the two countries are planning — and a small, Chinese-made satellite into different preset orbits, it said.

Last week, China became just the third nation after the United States and the former Soviet Union to successfully send a man into orbit. Its Shenzhou V capsule landed safely in Inner Mongolia on Thursday after circling the globe 14 times.

Tuesday’s satellites were launched at the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in the northern province of Shanxi.

China and Brazil launched their first Earth Resources Satellite, developed at a cost of $300 million, in October 1999 to gather information on the environment, agriculture, urban planning and water pollution.

The Sino-Brazilian satellite launched on Tuesday is also meant to collect environmental data. It would be controlled by China for one and a half years and by Brazil for the remainder of its two-year life span.

Space officials said the satellite, weighing 1,550 kg (3,417 lb), is more reliable than the first one which was developed by the two countries and launched in October 1999, Xinhua reported.

The other satellite launched with it on Tuesday, called “Chuangxin I,” weighed less than 100 kg (220 lb), Xinhua said.

It incorporated “a series of advanced telecommunication technologies, can play a big role in data transmission to help traffic control, environmental protection, oil and gas transportation, flood prevention and earthquake monitoring,” Xinhua said.

The remaining two satellites under the China-Brazil cooperation would be launched by 2010, it said.

Taken from: http://edition.cnn.com/2003/TECH/space/10/21/china.satellite.reut/index.html

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