China yesterday launched a recoverable experimental science
satellite into a preset orbit, atop a Long March 2D carrier
rocket.
Space officials said the China-made satellite was launched at
3:20 pm from a newly built launch tower at Jiuquan Satellite Launch
Centre in Gansu Province, Northwest China.
The officials said the satellite would remain in orbit for 18
days before returning to Earth.
Reports from Xi'an Satellite Monitor and Control Centre say the
satellite is orbiting as scheduled and its instruments are
functioning normally.
It is the 18th recoverable satellite developed by China, and is
technically much more advanced than the previous ones in terms of
its performance.
The satellite is mainly for scientific research, land surveying,
mapping and other scientific experiments, said space experts.
The data China gathers from the satellite will help promote the
country's scientific and technological, economic and social
development.
With a liftoff mass of 251 tons, the launch vehicle, 40.6 metres
in length, was developed by the Shanghai Academy of Space
Technology with China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp.
The launch is the 73rd since 1970 by the country's Long March
carrier rockets, and the 31st consecutive successful launch since
October 1996.
Space experts said the success rate of Long March rockets is 91
per cent.
Yesterday's launch came less than a month after China's first
manned space flight on October 15-16, and the October 21 launch of
an earth resources satellite developed in co-operation with Brazil
and a smaller satellite.
Space experts said the number of launches in such short period
is unprecedented in China's history, indicating the country' s
progress in launch capability and development of launch vehicle and
spacecraft.
Yesterday's successful launch also underlined the reliability of
the world's first satellite testing and launch tower with a
structure of cement reinforced by steel bars, space experts
said.
The tower, 91 metres high, replaces the commonly-used steel
structure. Located at Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in Gansu
Province, Northwest China, the tower looks like a high-rise
building and is used for assembling, testing and launching
satellites and rockets, and injecting propellants.
The building contains more than 40 testing workshops and closed
rooms, providing all-weather pre-launch testing in convenient and
comfortable conditions for engineers and technicians.
Compared with the popular steel-structured launch tower at home
and abroad, the new tower is cost-effective.
Experts say it represents the country's first versatile launch
facility capable of testing and launching different models of
satellites.
Previously, China had to build separate test, launch and control
systems for different models of satellite.
(China Daily November 4, 2003)