China launches multi-purpose satellite     

Beijing, Dec 7: China on Sunday successfully launched a multi-purpose satellite for monitoring, planning and management of land, forestry and agriculture.

The CBERS-4 satellite has been developed jointly with Brazil. It was launched from Taiyuan base using a Long March-4B rocket.

In November 2002, the governments of China and Brazil decided to expand the initial agreement by including another two satellites – CBERS-3, lost in a launch mishap in December 2013, and CBERS-4 – as the second generation of the Sino-Brazilian cooperation effort.

It was the 200th flight for the Long March rocket family, state-run Xinhua News Agency reported.

The rocket blasted off at 11:26 a m (local time) and lifted the earth resource satellite into its scheduled orbit, it said.

CBERS-4 is one of the satellites of the Chinese-Brazilian Earth Resource Satellite (CBERS) programme which began in 1988. Such satellites are used in monitoring, planning and management of land, forestry, water conservation, environmental protection and agriculture, it said.

PTI