The night shot of the joint ESA-China “Double Star” Probe No. 1 occurred early Tuesday morning from Xichang in Southwestern China.

http://www.eubusiness.com/afp/031230025723.nso8fg41

First joint China-European satellite successfully launched

30 December 2003

The first ever joint Chinese-European space mission — a satellite designed to study the earth’s magnetic field — was successfully launched Tuesday from a base in southwest China.

Witnesses said the high-altitude Explorer 1 was sent into orbit by a Long March 2C/SM rocket at 3:06 am (1906 GMT Monday) from the Xichang Satellite Launching Center in Sichuan province.

Tracking reports from the Xi’an Satellite Monitor and Control Center showed the launch went to plan, with the satellite expected to work in space for 18 months, the Xinhua news agency reported.

The mission — the first time European experiments have been integrated with Chinese satellites — is the first of two elements in the joint Sino-European “Double Star” project.

A polar satellite is expected to go up within six months.

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reposting some of the latest picts for archival purposes.

That aircraft thread in cgtalk.com is pretty cool, Mixtec. I notice several of the best CG artists from the Chinese language forums there: Stinger and Songbird.

And they say Chinese people have no creativity 😀

I’ll hang some ordnance on this model after I do some more research and make the time to build them.

We’ll see how close to the real J-10B when we get pictures. The two-seater supposedly flew a few weeks ago.