China Launches Two Satellites To Watch The Weather

DRAGON SPACE

A Long March 4B moments after ignition

Taiyuan May 15, 2002
China's Long March carrier rocket has completed its 67th successful launch Wednesday morning from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in north China's Shanxi Province, giving the country its first marine satellite.

The Fengyun-1D meteorological satellite and Haiyang-1 marine surveying satellite were launched on a Long March 4B rocket at 9:50 am (Beijing time).

The Haiyang-1 satellite is China's first marine satellite for surveying ocean resources, developed by the Chinese Institute of Space Technology.

It weights 360 kg with a designed life span of two years and sun-synchronous orbit.

Technicians said that the Haiyang-1 satellite used visible light and infrared spectral coverage to probe water temperature, and was equipped with remote sensors to transfer digital and image messages back to earth.

After an in-orbit trial, the marine satellite will be passed over to the National Marine Satellite Application Center.

China has over 18,000 kilometers of continental coastline, over 6,500 inshore islands and about 14,000 kilometers of shoreline.

According to the United Nations maritime treaty, China governs nearly 3 million square kilometers of sea area.

The Fengyun-1D is a first generation meteorological satellite developed by China, which will lead the way to comprehensive weather services and monitoring the global environment.

The launch was the 25th consecutive successful launch on the Long March rockets since October 1996.

Experts said that the successful launch of the two satellites shows that China has basically set up a long-term satellite monitoring system, which would speed up China's meteorological research and help promote national economic development.

Source Xinhua News Agency

DRAGON SPACE

China Plans Six MetSats By 2008

Beijing - Sept. 5, 2001
China plans to mount an ambitious effort to launch six additional Fengyun weather satellites over the next six years.

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