Posted on 31 July 2010
Aug.01 (China Military news cited from Xinhua) -- China successfully launched its fifth orbiter into space at 5:30 a.m. Sunday, as a part of its indigenous satellite navigation and positioning network.
The satellite was launched from the Long March 3I carrier rocket.
It is the 126th flight for the country's Long March series of rockets.
The satellite will join another four satellites in orbit to form a network that will eventually consist of 35 satellites.
The system, code named "COMPASS", is a crucial part of the country's space infrastructure for providing navigation and positioning services in transportation, meteorology, petroleum prospecting, forest fire monitoring, disaster forecast, telecommunications and public security among others.
China started building its own satellite navigation system to end its dependence upon the U.S. GPS system in 2000, when it sent two orbiters as a double-satellite experimental positioning system.
The system is designed to provide navigation, time and short message services in the Asia and Pacific region before 2012 and will be capable of providing global navigation services by 2020.
Posted on 30 July 2010
Jul.30 (China Military News cited from Xinhua) -- China's first high resolution, stereoscopic mapping satellite for civilian use will be launched during the second half of 2011, the State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping said Thursday.
The bureau said the ZY-3 will be sent into space by the Long March-4B carrier rocket from the Taiyuan satellite Launch Center in north China.
The satellite is expected to "provide steady and reliable data sources for surveying and mapping on the scale of 1:50,000."
ZY-3 is to provide mapping to be used in wide-ranging sectors such as disaster prevention and reduction, water conservancy, agriculture, forestry, environmental protection, urban construction and planning, communications and national defense.
The bureau is also working with the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation on the research and development of the next generation of satellites after the ZY-3.
The ZY-3 project was kicked off in March 2008. Three ground stations in Beijing, Kashgar in far west Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and Sanya in the southernmost island province of Hainan, will receive and transmit satellite data.
