China Ends History of Having No Land Resource Satellites

The Sino-Brazilian Earth Resource Satellite 01 Hand-Over Ceremony was held in Beijing March 2 by the Commission of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense, at which the satellite was turned over by the China Space Science and Technology Group Company, the development unit, to the China Resource Satellite Application Center, the representative department of the user, and was formally put into use. This indicates that China's resource satellite development technology has reached the 1990s advanced international level.

Minister of Science and Technology Zhu Lilan, Minister of the Commission of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense Liu Jibin, Brazilian Ambassador to China Affonso De Ouro-Preto, as well as leaders from the State Development Planning Commission, the Ministries of Finance, Agriculture and Water Resources, the State Administration of Environmental Protection and other relevant departments attended and spoke at the ceremony.

The Sino-Brazilian Earth Resource Satellite 01 is a key State development and construction project approved in 1986 by the State Council and the Central Military Commission. In July 1988, the Chinese and Brazilian governments ratified the joint development of the project. This is the transmission earth resource remote sensing satellite China has developed for the first time. The Commission of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense is responsible for organizing the implementation and general coordination of the project, the China Space Technology Research Institute and the Brazil Space Institute take charge of the joint development.

The Resource 01 was launched by the Taiyuan Satellites Launching Center on October 14 last year. Under the meticulous organization of the Xi'an Satellite Monitoring Center and the China Space Technology Research Institute, the task of testing the orbital transfer and on-track of the satellite was completed. At present, the satellite has been going on safety operation for more than 140 days and has made over 2,000 circuits around the earth, more than 20,000 pictures of the earth have been taken. The successful launch of the Resource Satellite 01 has put an end to Chinese history of having no land resource satellites and of having to purchase foreign satellite data, this success was appraised as one of the 10 major aspects of scientific and technological progress in 1999 by scientists of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering. The Resource 01 has set a precedent in cooperation between developing countries in the space high-tech field, it was praised as the "example of South-South cooperation" by General Secretary Jiang Zemin. Xu Fuxiang, director of the China Space Technology Research Institute, said excitedly that the Resource 01, which carries the most effective load in China's satellite development history, indicates that China has the ability to develop high-quality satellites by relying on its own technical force. The successful development of the satellite has helped raise the management level of China's development of air vehicles; and helped the country accumulate more experience in international cooperation in the space high-tech field.

It is reported that the Resource 01 Satellite will be widely used in land resource survey, evaluation of crops production, the monitoring of crop growth, city planning, environmental monitor, the investigation and exploration of mineral resources, the monitoring of forest resources, the forecasting of natural disaster and many other fields. What is especially inspiring is that the satellite can provide large amounts of remote sensing materials for the western region of China, which is beyond foreign satellites, and can thus play an active role in accelerating the large-scale development of the western region.

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