China's space tracking ship Yuanwang-3 departs for new monitoring missions

Aerial photo shows China's spacecraft tracking ship Yuanwang-3 sailing on the southern Pacific Ocean, June 21, 2019. (Xinhua/Li Yuze)

NANJING, Feb. 20 (Xinhua) -- China's space tracking ship Yuanwang-3 on Saturday set sail for the Pacific Ocean from a port in east China's Jiangsu Province for upcoming maritime monitoring missions.

It is the ship's first voyage this year.

Commissioned on May 18, 1995, Yuanwang-3 is a second-generation Chinese space tracking ship. It has undertaken more than 90 maritime tracking and monitoring tasks for spacecraft, including the Shenzhou spaceships, Chang'e lunar probes and BeiDou satellites.