Brazil: CBERS-2B Satellite Launched Successfully from China

Today, 19, CBERS-2B, the first satellite of the partnership between Brazil and China, was launched successfully with the rocket Lona Marcha 4B, from Taiyuan, in China. The event was celebrated at Satellites Control Center of National Institute for Space Research (INPE), in São José dos Campos, Brazil.

Gilberto Câmara, director of INPE, watched the launch from the Chinese base, and with the two engineers Ricardo Cartaxo and Jânio Kono, transmitted all the informations for the technicians and guests in Brazil. “It is the result of a great work made by Brazilians and Chineses. We are very proud”, said Gilberto Câmara.

CBERS
The CBERS is today one of the main programs of remote sensing worldwide, besides the Landsat, Spot and ResourceSat. The images from CBERS are used in applications like forestry monitoring and support for agriculture. The data received from the satellite are used by Brazilian Government in the struggle against Amazon deforestation.

Since 2004, more than 320,000 from CBERS were distributed for aproximatelly 5,000 users from many public and private institutions. Brazil and China distributed at no costs the images from CBERS for neighbor countries. In 2008, the images from CBERS will be distributed also for countries in Central America, Caribe, Africa and Southeast Asia.

Source: INPE