It was a day of double delight for China's space industry yesterday - the country celebrated the launch of an oceanic survey satellite and the fixing of a malfunctioning satellite that was blasted off two months ago.

But the news on Sinosat 2, the country's first direct broadcast satellite launched on October 29, was not as good.

"I understand scientists have fixed glitches on the solar panels of the Beidou navigation satellite," said Xiong Li, vice-president of Sino Satellite Communications Co, owner of Sinosat 2, which was unable to deploy its solar panels and communications antennae, rendering it a virtual failure.

"But problems remain for Sinosat 2," she told China Daily.

Xinhua reported yesterday that the Beidou (Big Dipper) experimental navigation satellite launched on February 3 soon developed a glitch.

It quoted sources at the Xi'an Satellite Control Center in Northwest China's Shaanxi Province as saying that the satellite, one of the four providing all-weather and all-day navigation and positioning information, had trouble deploying its solar panels which has now been fixed.

Yesterday's launch of Haiyang-1B, a crucial component of China's three-dimensional oceanic survey system, was staged at around noon.

Chief scientist Bai Zhaoguang said the satellite is an upgraded version of the Haiyang-1A, which was launched in May 2002.

Source: China Daily