China launches communications satellite

BEIJING, Oct 29 (Reuters) China put a communications and broadcast satellite into orbit today, the latest in a 10-year string of successful space launches, the official Xinhua news agency said.

The SinoSat-2 satellite, launched from the Xichang launch centre in the southwestern province of Sichuan, is designed to serve live television signals and digital broadband multimedia systems in China, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, it said.

The Long March-3B carrier rocket lifted off at 12.20 am today and the satellite split from the rocket 25 minutes later and entered geosynchronous orbit. It will be moved into position above the equator, Xinhua said.

It was China's 51st straight successful space launch since October 1996, Xinhua said. The country launched its first satellite in 1970 which orbited the earth blaring the Cultural Revolution anthem, ''The East is Red''.

Today's launch came three years after China put a man into space, the third country to achieve the feat after the Soviet Union and the United States. It launched a second manned space flight last year and plans a spacewalk by 2008.

A SINO Satellite Communications Co. Ltd. official was quoted as saying 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.

Reuters DKS VP0715