The satellite, atop a Long March 2-D carrier rocket, was fired from the Jiuquan Satellite launch centre in Gansu province, said Xinhua news agency.

"Scientists said the satellite was running sound at a preset orbit," it said, without elaborating how long it will remain in orbit.

It was the 20th recoverable satellite for scientific and technological experiments that China has launched, the agency said.

China launched a pair of satellites earlier this month for a two-year mission to investigate space radiation and its effects.

China in October last year became the third country after the United States and the Soviet Union to achieve manned space flight, when astronaut Yang Liwei orbited the Earth 14 times.

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