Posted: Tue, May 14, 2002, 10:11 PM ET (0211 GMT)
China is planning to launch as early as Wednesday a new weather satellite, according to Chinese media reports. An article published by the English-language publication China Today on Tuesday said that the Feng Yun 1D (FY-1D) spacecraft would be launched Wednesday on a Long March 4B booster from the Taiyuan launch center in northern China. The launch had not been widely reported prior to the article's publication, and had not appeared on most Western schedules of launch events. The 950-kg spacecraft will be launched into a Sun-synchronous orbit and replace FY-1C, launched three years ago this month. The satellite is the first of five meteorological spacecraft China plans to launch between now and the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing: two geosynchronous orbit FY-2 spacecraft are scheduled for launch in 2003 and 2006, and two new FY-3 polar-orbiting spacecraft are planned for 2005 and 2008.

Related Links:

•  China Daily article
•  FY-1 information from astronautix.com