BEIJING
(AP) -- China has launched its first data relay satellite in preparation for
the inaugural spacewalk by a Chinese astronaut scheduled for later this year, a
state news agency said Saturday.
The
Tianlian I satellite was launched on a Long March-3C carrier rocket from the
Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China's Sichuan Province late
Friday night, Xinhua News Agency said.
It said the
satellite would not begin functioning until the Shenzhou 7
mission -- scheduled for the second half of 2008 -- when Chinese astronauts
were to leave
their spacecraft for the first time.
Xinhua reported earlier this year that
China's space program was considering a live broadcast of the spacewalk.
China's
space program is the focus of immense national pride, and officials announced
even more ambitious plans to explore the moon and build a space station after
the program first put a man into orbit in 2003.
China sent
an unmanned space ship to
orbit the moon last year, the first step in a three-stage lunar exploration
project. A manned lunar voyage is planned for some time after 2017.
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