The announcement was made in Paris by the European Space Agency (ESA), which said the launch was scheduled for 1906 GMT.

The program's chief scientist Liu Zhenxing was earlier quoted by the China Daily as saying only that last-minute preparations were underway for the Double Star project.

The satellite, known as Explorer 1, will be put into orbit from atop a Chinese-made Long March 2C rocket from Xichang Satellite Launching Center in Sichuan province, southwest China.

It is the first of two elements to be put into orbit for the Double Star project, which will see European experiments being run on Chinese-built satellites.

The two satellites have been jointly designed by Chinese and European scientific research institutions.

The first satellite, slated for equatorial monitoring, will be followed by a polar satellite, expected to go up six months later.

They have been jointly designed by the Space Technology Institute of the China Aerospace Technology Corporation, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and eight European scientific research institutions.

The ESA has partially funded Double Star, agreeing to an eight million euro (9.5 million dollars) cash injection in a July 2001 accord.

Explorer 1 is set to fly further than any other satellite in China's space history, and will monitor parts of the two magnetic fields of the Earth's atmosphere in a bid to better understand environmental changes in space, Liu said.

The Double Star Project is not the only project between China and the ESA.

On October 30, China agreed to participate in the Galileo satellite navigation system, a joint venture between the ESA and the European Union, and will contribute 200 million euros (250 million dollars) to the 3.3 billion euro (4.1 billion dollar) project.

The ESA and China first shared data in 1980, and in 1993 they agreed to cooperate on the ESA's Cluster project.

China has lofty plans for its space program following its successful launch this year of a man into orbit, becoming only the third country after Russia and the United States to achieve the feat.

SPACE.WIRE