It said "Experimental Satellite No. 2" entered a fixed orbit 13 minutes after the rocket was launched Thursday evening, according to data from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China's Sichuan Province.

The satellite weighing about 300 kg (660 pounds) will conduct experiments and monitor the earth's land resources and geographic environment while in orbit, Xinhua said, without giving details of the experiments.

It was the 83rd time that Long March carriers have been used and the 41st consecutive success since China launched the first of its kind in October 1996, the agency said.

China became only the third country to send a man into orbit, after the United States and the former Soviet Union, in October 2003.

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