- June 15, 2007
- Posted by: EARSC
- Categories: Archive, Internationalization
A new Sino-Brazilian earth-observation satellite has entered a three-week testing phase and is scheduled to be launched from Taiyuan around September.
Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (INPE) started working on the so-called Earth Resources Satellite (CBERS) 02B satellite last June.
Scientists hope the satellite, the third jointly developed by the space agencies of China and Brazil, will come with higher resolution cameras and a longer lifespan.
The CBERS 02B is slated to replace the CBERS 02 satellite, which has served since 2003, surpassing its expected two-year lifespan.
Satellite CBERS 01 was launched in 1999 and also operated for more than two years.
The CBERS program was jointly initiated by the INPE and China Space Agency (CSA) in 1988.
Among other things, the satellites in the program monitor the Brazil’s rain forest and crop cycles in the two countries.
The two countries signed further agreements in 2002 and 2004 to develop the CBERS 03 and CBERS 04 satellites within the next few years, Sun Laiyan, head of the CSA, said.
The two sides are planning to launch the CBERS 03 in 2009. The CBERS 02B will help fill the gap, he added.
Equipped with powerful cameras and infrared scanners, CBERS images are free to all Chinese and Brazilian people and have also benefited a number of Asian and Latin American countries.
Brazilian Ambassador to China Louis de Castro Nevis praised the program, calling it “a very good demonstration of what our two peoples can do together.”
“This is a major and very advanced field of human knowledge,” he said, noting that intensified technological innovation can help the two countries “better combine the resources at our disposal and keep economic development at a very fast pace, thereby improving the living conditions of both our peoples.”
“There are no limits on the cooperation between China and Brazil, and we hope that the next satellite will be launched from Brazil,” he told China Daily.
(Source China Daily)
