Immediate efforts resulted in the completion of the first cloud image receiver which received imagery from the U.S. Environmental Survey Satellite (ESSA) before the decade ended.

Shortly after in 1971 the China Meteorological Administration (CMA) established the National Satellite Meteorological Center (NSMC) which was responsible for scientific research and operational issues related to satellite meteorology.

After years of study, a design proposal for the first metsat was submitted in the late 1970s.

In the early 1980s, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) provided China funding to acquire a US$2 million satellite data receiving and processing system from the United States.

The acquisition was a great leap forward for the Chinese meteorology program and offered more comprehensive training to meteorologists.

Meanwhile NSMC set up ground reception stations in Beijing, Guangzhou in the southern Guangdong Province and Urumqi in the northwestern Xinjiang Autonomous Region, as well as a Data Processing Centre in Beijing to receive satellite data from foreign metsats and in anticipation of receiving data from its own satellites.

First Launch

Development of the first domestic metsat finally came to fruition with the launch of the experimental FY-1A from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Centre (TSLC) in the northern Shanxi Province on Sept. 7, 1988 aboard a Changzheng-4 (LM-4) rocket. China became the third nation after the former Soviet Union and the U.S. to build and launch its own metsats.

FY-1A was a 3-axis stabilized hexahedron satellite which measured 1.4m x 1.4m x 1.2m and weighed 750kg. However, the polar sunsynchronous metsat only functioned 39 days due to the failure of its attitude control subsystem. Another problem that hampered FY-1A operation was water vapor contamination of the IR detector.

The successor, experimental FY-1B, went into space aboard another CZ-4 rocket from TSLC on Sept. 3, 1990. Although there was an improved attitude control subsystem on board, malfunction of the subsystem caused FY-1B to tumble on its 166th day of operation. FY-1B later resumed operation after ground controllers stablized and corrected its attitude.

At the time FY-1B went into operation, the Sun was still fairly active in its last solar cycle. Solar radiation and energetic particles bombarded the satellite regularly and caused many single event upsets to its electronics. FY-1B worked intermittently until the invisible terrorists finally terminated its operation 285 days after launch, a duration that fell short of the design lifetime of one year.

Major Setback

Development of the geostationary metsat FY-2 proceeded in parallel. However, a disaster dealt the program a major setback.

On April 2, 1994 during the fuelling operation at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center (XSLC) in the southwestern Sichuan Province, the original FY-2A exploded; killing one person and injuring 31 others.

Among the seriously injured were the chief designer Li Qing and Zhan Lishan, the deputy chief designer of the primary payload VISSR. The explosion destroyed the satellite and all ground testing facilities.

FY-2A was a spin-stabilized cylindrical satellite which measured 2.1m in diameter and 1.6m in height, or a height of 3.1m with the de-spun antenna included. The satellite weighed 520kg.

After more than 3 years of rebuilding from scratch, a CZ-3 lofted the experimental FY-2A replacement into space from XSLC on June 10, 1997. A week later FY-2A reached its geostationary slot at 105 deg. E. longitude. FY-2A went into service operation on Jan. 1, 1998.

Merely four months later on April 8, the satellite's de-spun subsystem developed a problem which prevented the S-band antenna from keeping a lock on Earth. Since then FY-2A worked on a part-time basis for the next two years.

On April 26, 2000, just two months before its successor FY-2B went into space, FY-2A was repositioned to the 86.5 deg. E. longitude slot and served as a backup. A thorough checkout of the VISSR in July 2000 showed that the imager still returned imagery with the same quality as three years ago.

The replacement metsat, experimental FY-2B, was launched aboard a CZ-3 from XSLC on June 25, 2000. After a six-month verification, the metsat went into service operation on Dec. 26.

Metsat Sets Longevity Record

The crown jewel of the Chinese metsat program currently belongs to FY-1C. The satellite, which lifted off on May 10, 1999 on board a CZ-4B rocket from TSLC, remained in excellent conditions after it surpassed the design life expectancy of two years last month.

Manager of NSMC Dong Chaohua said: "FY-1C maintains a stable attitude with good electrical power supply and returns clear imagery. The overall quality is excellent."

With FY-1C and the new FY-2B function nominally, China joins U.S., Russia, Europe and Japan to provide critical meteorological information that is an integral part of our daily lives.

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