China's National Space Administration announced on Sunday that China would launch the third Sino-Brazilian earth resources satellite in September or October. The launch schedule was slightly different from what previously announced last month by Sun Laiyan, the director of the CNSA, who said the Earth Resources Satellite 02B would be launched in September. The satellite will be launched in Taiyuan, capital of north China's Shanxi province, carried by a Long March 4B rocket. Sun revealed the satellite had been upgraded with a high definition camera. Source:Xinhua
Satellite 02B, the third Chinese and Brazilian earth resources satellite, is to be to launch in September this year. The satellite was jointly developed by China and Brazil, The satellite has been put through a series of tests at the Brazilian National Space Research Institute (INPE) and is to be transferred to china for further testing.
Two previous satellites, Satellites 01 and 02 which were launched by the two countries in 1999 and 2003 respectively, are used to collect information on the Earth's environment, agriculture, urban development planning and water pollution.
China and Brazil plan to launch satellite 03, in 2009; and satellite 04 sometime after that...
