ISLAMABAD – China on Monday successfully launched two remote sensingsatellites for its “all-weather” ally Pakistan, which will also help thetwo countries monitor progress as they build the strategic USD 50 billionChina-Pakistan Economic Corridor.
The launch of the two satellites marks yet another space cooperationbetween China and Pakistan since the launch of PAKSAT-1R, a communicationsatellite, in August 2011.
The satellites — PRSS-1 and PakTES-1A — were launched from the JiuquanSatellite Launch Centre in northwest China at 11:56 am using a LongMarch-2C rocket, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
The PRSS-1 is China’s first optical remote sensing satellite sold toPakistan. It is the 17th satellite developed by the China Academy of SpaceTechnology (CAST) for an overseas buyer, it said.
A scientific experiment satellite, PakTES-1A, developed by engineers of thePakistan Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (Suparco), was sentinto orbit using the same rocket.
After entering orbit, the PRSS-1 is in good condition with its solar panelsunfolded smoothly, according to the CAST.
The PRSS-1 will be used for land and resources surveying, monitoring ofnatural disasters, agriculture research, urban construction and providingremote sensing information for the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC)under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) of the Chinese government.
The satellites will play a positive role in the development of Pakistan’seconomy and improve the lives of people. Alongside, it will also providespace remote sensing information services for the CPEC, which is flagshipproject of the BRI.
The USD 50 billion CPEC is a network of infrastructure projects that arecurrently under construction throughout Pakistan that will connect China’sXinjiang province with the Gwadar port in Pakistan’s Balochistan province,giving China an opening to the Arabian Sea.
The satellite, which has a designed life of seven years, is equipped withtwo panchromatic/multispectral cameras, with a resolution up to a metre anda coverage range of 60 km.
Designers say the two cameras are among the best exported remote sensingcameras made by China. They can be used to monitor plant diseases andpests, the report said.
Each camera has independent image processing, storage and transmissioncapability. The design of lossless compression could greatly improve thequality of the images, according to the designers.
A specially designed orbit will ensure the satellite operates steadily andwill optimise the image quality.
The satellite can turn at wide angles to enable the cameras to cover awider range. The PRSS-1 has an information security design, and the datacan be encrypted.
The data transmission system is a mature technology, which has been used inmore than 20 Chinese satellites, said He Xinyang, vice president of theXi’an branch of the CAST.
When the satellite flies over Pakistan, it can send back real-time images,said Zhang Qian, a designer for the data transmission system.
Monday’s launch is the 279th mission of the Long March rocket series. LongMarch-2C rockets are mainly used to send satellites into low Earth orSun-synchronous orbits.
It is also the first international commercial launch for a Long March-2Crocket within nearly two decades after it carried Motorola’s Iridiumsatellites into orbit in 1999