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China launches new commercial communications satellite
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  • BEIJING (AFP) Apr 12, 2005
    Emerging space power China launched a commercial communications satellite late Tuesday, state media reported.

    The AsiaSat-6 satellite, atop a Long March 3-B carrier rocket, was fired from a launch centre at Xichang in the southwestern province of Sichuan at 8 pm (1200 GMT), Xinhua news agency said.

    It was a commercial launch for Hong Kong-based APT Satellite Limited, the agency said.

    AsiaSat-6, which has 50 transponders, will replace AsiaSat-1A, Xinhua said, without saying when the new satellite will be operational.

    "The successful launch will be of great significance to the development of China's aerospace technology and the expansion of the overseas commercial launch market for China," it said.

    China launched a US-made commercial satellite, AsiaSat-1, in 1990.

    In October 2003 it became the third country after the United States and the Soviet Union to achieve manned space flight when astronaut Yang Liwei orbited the Earth 14 times.




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