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China to Launch S.Korean Satellite
China will launch a South Korean satellite in April 2004 in accordance with an agreement signed Wednesday in Taejon, South Korea.
Under the agreement signed between China's Great Wall Industries Corp. and the Korea Aerospace Research Institute, the Korea Multi-Purpose Satellite 2 (KOMPSAT-2), will be launched into space on the LM-2C rocket from a launch center in Xichang, China's Sichuan Province, in April 2004.
South Korea chose the Chinese rocket after its evaluation of four different launch vehicles showed that the LM-2C is superior in cost and reliability.
The LM-2C is a version of China's CSS-2 "Long March" rocket manufactured by China's Great Wall Industries Corp.
The three-stage Chinese rocket, fueled by liquid propellant, is 40 meters in height and weighs 213 tons.
The rocket has successfully launched 21 satellites in a row, including seven low earth orbit Iridium communications satellites.
The KOMPSAT-2e, the first one to be launched by China, will carry scientific instruments for observation of natural resources, digital map-making and atmospheric research, and can provide detailed high resolution pictures from an orbit of 685 km above the earth.
Participating in the development of the satellite are the Korea Aerospace Industries Association, Daewoo Heavy Industries and Machinery and foreign concerns like the European consortium Astrium and Israel's Electro-Optics Industries.
South Korea launched its first multipurpose satellite KOMPSAT-1 in December 1999 from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, the United States aboard a Taurus rocket made by the U.S. Orbital Sciences and Corp.
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