China launched a high-power communications and broadcast satellite into orbit on Sunday, continuing its successful programme of launches, state media said. The SinoSat-2 satellite was launched on a Long March 3-B carrier rocket from the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre in southwestern province of Sichuan province at 12.20 am on Sunday (1620 Saturday GMT) and entered its preset orbit 25 minutes later.
It is designed to relay television, digital television, live broadcasts and digital broadband multimedia to China, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, the official Xinhua news agency said.
SinoSat-2 weighs about 5.1 tonnes and has 22 transponders, with a planned orbital life of 12 years.
It was built mainly by the China Academy of Space Technology.
The launch was China's 51st consecutive successful space launch since October 1996 and the 93rd launch of a Long March series rocket.
The imported SinoSat-1 was launched in July 1998 to broadcast Chinese radio and television signals in the Asia-Pacific region.
China plans to launch a SinoSat-3 broadcast satellite next year, the agency said.
China has already launched about 50 satellites aboard Long March rockets, which also carried the country's first manned space flight in 2003.
Its ambitious space programme includes plans for an orbital moon probe next year and a permanent space laboratory by 2020.
The 2003 manned mission made China only the third country to launch an astronaut into space after Russia and the United States.
