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China Plans to Launch its Highest Ever Satellite
By Associated Press
posted: 10:35 am ET
20 November 2003
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Untitled BEIJING (AP) -- China's space agency said Thursday it plans to launch its highest-ever satellite later this year using a Chinese-made Long March rocket and in cooperation with the European Space Agency, state media reported. The China National Space Administration said the satellite would blast off on a Long March 2C-SM rocket to an orbit of 550 kilometers to 66,970 kilometers (340 miles to 41,500 miles), the Xinhua News Agency said. The satellite will be used to study the Earth's magnetic field and atmosphere, the report said. It will carry instruments provided by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, as well as the European Space Agency under an agreement signed in 2001, it added. Another Chinese satellite will be launched in the first half of next year under the same program, which is called "Double Star," the report said. The two Chinese satellites along with four European Space Agency satellites already in orbit would together form a single probe system, able to explore the Earth's magnetic field from six points at once, it said. On Oct. 15, China sent its first man into space.
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