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. "The successful launch and operation of the 02B would provide better data service," Sun said.
The satellite was assembled and tested in Brazil, and then sent to China for a vacuum simulation test earlier last month. The satellite has passed all the tests and is ready for launching, the official said.
China and Brazil inked the cooperation agreement on the 02B in 2004. Both have also agreed to develop satellites 03 and 04 and launch satellite 03 in 2009. The previous two satellites were launched in 1999 and 2003.
The previous sino-brazilian satellites have produced more than one million earth images, 180,000 of which have gone to more than 1,200 Chinese users, ranging from agriculture, forestry to mining, environmental surveillance and other areas.
Source: Space Mart
