Long March rocket launches first Fengyun-3 weather satellite

From Wikinews, the free news source you can write!

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

A Long March 4C rocket

China

Other stories from China

• 5 February 2010: Chinese animator Te Wei dies at age 95
• 4 February 2010: China and US clash over currency
• 3 February 2010: Wikinews Shorts: Feburary 3, 2010
• 2 February 2010: China urges Obama to cancel Dalai Lama visit
• 31 January 2010: China threatens to take action over US-Taiwan deal

...More articles here

Location of China

To write, edit, start or view other articles on China, see the China Portal

The Chinese National Space Administration has launched a Long March 4C carrier rocket, carrying the Fengyun-3A (FY-3A) weather satellite. FY-3A is the first of thirteen Fengyun-3 satellites, which will be launched in the next twelve years.

The launch occurred from Launch Area 1 at the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Centre in Shanxi province, China. Lift-off was at 03:02 GMT this morning, and the ascent to orbit took around 27 minutes, resulting in the successful deployment of the satellite.

Fengyun-3A will provide weather forecasts for the upcoming Olympic Games. It will also be used for general forecasting, both for China and the rest of the world. It will be able to make forecasts around a fortnight in advance. With a 250 metre resolution, it is the most advanced Chinese weather satellite yet launched.

This is the 26^th orbital launch of 2008, the 106^th launch of a Long March rocket, and the 3^rd launch of the Long March 4C, which first flew in 2006. The next scheduled Chinese launch is believed to be a Long March 3B from the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre, with the Chinasat 9 satellite. This will occur in early June.

Sources

• Rui C. Barbosa "China launches first of new generation polar orbiting satellites" – NASASpaceflight.com, 2008-05-27
• Amber Yao "China launches 2nd Olympic weather satellite" – Xinhua, 2008-05-27
  

Share this:

This page is archived, and is no longer publicly editable. Got a correction? Add the template {{editprotected}} to the talk page along with your corrections, and it will be brought to the attention of the administrators. Please note that due to our archival policy, we will not alter or update the content of articles that are archived, but will only accept requests to make grammatical and formatting corrections. Note that some listed sources or external links may no longer be available online due to age.