FUZHOU, Sept. 18 (Xinhua) -- China plans to launch Taiji-2, a satellite to conduct in-orbit experiments on key technologies related to space-based gravitational wave detection, before 2024, Wu Yueliang, chief scientist of the Taiji program, said on Friday.

Taiji-1, China's first satellite in the program, was launched in August 2019 and has been performing well in orbit, said Wu, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), at the ongoing 2020 China Space Conference held in Fuzhou, capital of east China's Fujian Province.

"Taiji-1 has taken the fundamental step in China's gravitational wave detection. Its experimental results have verified the correctness and the feasibility of the whole Taiji program," Wu added.

CAS set out a three-step strategy to implement the Taiji program. It took a research team about one year to develop Taiji-1. Two satellites are expected to be launched in the second step, and three more in the third step.