China aims better TV coverage with SinoSat-2 launch

Beijing -- Bringing up the latest in a 10-year run of successful space launches, China fired a domestically produced communications satellite into orbit Sunday.

The satellite called SinoSat-2 will help to provide a broader coverage of TV signals and allows more digital and live broadcast TV services across the country, reported the state-run Xinhua News Agency.

The satellite was launched from the Xichang launch center in the southwestern province of Sichuan, lifted by a Long March-3B rocket at 12.20 a.m. on Sunday (1620 GMT on Saturday). 25 minutes later the satellite split from the rocket and entered geosynchronous orbit and will be moved to a position above the equator.

The 5.1 ton heavy satellite was built by the China Academy of Space Technology for the Sino Satellite Communications Co.

The SinoSat-2 launch came three years after China became the third country to put man into space after the Soviet Union and the United States. China is placing more advanced satellites into orbit for both commercial and military purposes with its decades-old aerospace program gaining momentum in recent years. Next the country plans a spacewalk by 2008.

Launched in 1998, SinoSat-1 was built by the French company Aerospatiale and a third satellite launch is being planned by SinoSat next year mainly to provide radio and TV services, state media said.

The launch would help China to tap the international spaceflight market and improve the capacity and reliability of China's information and live television broadcasts, quoted a SINO Satellite Communications Co. Ltd. official.

China’s first satellite was launched in 1970 which blared the Cultural Revolution anthem, "The East is Red" as it orbited around the Earth. Sunday’s effort was China's 51st straight successful space launch since October 1996, Xinhua said.