China launches CBERS-4 satellite along with Brazil
08 Dec 2014
China on Sunday successfully launched a multi-purpose satellite for monitoring, planning and management of land, forests and agriculture.
The remote sensing CBERS-4 satellite (China–Brazil Earth Resources Satellite 4) has been developed jointly with Brazil. It was launched from Taiyuan base using a Long March-4B rocket.
In November 2002, the governments of China and Brazil had decided to expand the initial agreement by including another two satellites - CBERS-3, lost in a launch mishap in December 2013, and CBERS-4 - as the second generation of the Sino-Brazilian cooperation effort.
It was the 200th flight of the Long March rocket family, state-run Xinhua News Agency reported.
The rocket blasted off at 11:26 a m (local time) and lifted the earth resource satellite into its scheduled orbit, it said.
CBERS-4, developed at a cost of $125 million, is one of the satellites of the Chinese-Brazilian Earth Resource Satellite (CBERS) programme which began in 1988.
Such satellites are used in monitoring, planning and management of land, forestry, water conservation, environmental protection and agriculture, it said.