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China successfully launched its second navigation satellite early Wednesday, as part of the country's independent global satellite navigation system.
The carrier rocket, Long March-3III, blasted off from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China's Sichuan Province at 0:16 am.
An official with the National Engineering Center of Satellite Navigation told Xinhua, the successful launch of the geostationary Earth orbit satellite was of great importance as it was the second one of the country's satellite navigation system independent from foreign technology.
The system, code named "COMPASS", is a crucial part of the country's space infrastructure for providing navigation and positioning services in transportation, meteorology, petroleum prospecting, forest fire monitoring, disaster forecast, telecommunications and public security among others. It can bring significant social and economic benefits, the official said.
The system can help clients know their location at any time and place with accurate longitude, latitude and altitude data, and will offer "safer" positioning, velocity, timing communications for authorized users.
Previous reports said China planed to complete its independent global satellite navigation system by launching about 30 more orbiters before 2015, with 10 navigation satellites into the space in 2009 and 2010. The current Compass system only provides regional navigation service within China and neighboring regions.
The second "Compass" satellite and its carrier rocket were respectively developed by the China Academy of Space Technology and the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology which are under the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation.
It is the 116th flight for the country's Long March series of rockets.
China launched the first "Compass" navigation satellite into geostationary orbit in April 2007 to build up its own positioning system following the United States' Global Positioning System (GPS), the Galileo Positioning System of Europe and Russia's Global Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS).
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A housewife in northwest China's Qinghai Province was arrested Sunday for beating her eight-year-old stepson to death, police said Tuesday.
Cai Wenzhen, 37, admitted hitting her stepson with a rolling pin at leat 40 minutes Sunday evening, because she was not satisfied with his schoolwork, said Wang Dong, a police officer in Xining Public Security Bureau.
The boy, Qi Haomin, was a second grader at Konglong Road Primary School in Xining, said Wang.
"She said it happened at 8 p.m., and the child was dead on his bed and we received reports about three hours later," said Wang.
He said police are still investigating the case.
Cai married Qi's father last year. Their next-door neighbor told Xinhua Tuesday that Cai used to abuse the child.
"Last Friday, she left him standing outside for four hours," said the woman surnamed Zhao. "It wouldn't have ended there had I not found out in time and stopped her."
Zhao said the boy was lively and talkative when his mother was alive. "After his stepmom came, he became much quieter than before."
The boy's father, Qi Zhicai, worked in the rural Guinan County, about 200 km from Xining, and rarely came home.
"I married her hoping she would take good care of my son," said Qi, 41. "I know she sometimes hit the child, but I never expected it could harm him."
Cai is a divorcee and her 12-year-old son from the previous marriage is not in her custody, Qi said. The woman has no job.
The boy's teacher, Shen Juxiang, said he was a good student. "He got full marks in mathematics and Chinese last semester."
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China will launch a new remote-sensing satellite into the out space Wednesday, a spokesman of the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in north Shanxi Province said on Tuesday.
Both of the satellite, "Yaogan VI," and the Long March 2C carrier rocket were in sound condition and the preparation work was well underway, said the spokesman.
China has launched five remote-sensing satellites so far.
The spokesman didn't specify the usage of the satellite, but those previous ones have been used for data collection and transmission involving scientific experiments, land resource surveys, crop yield estimates, and disaster prevention and reduction.
The first Chinese remote-sensing satellite was blasted off in April 2006, and the rest four were launched during 2007 and 2008.
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The topics of Auto show are not limited in New Auto technologies, New auto platforms, Concept cars, CAN-BUS, Facelifted models, but also the show girls and their fantastic performance.
Let's check which girl will walk on the stage in advance, 1 day before the 2009 Shanghai Auto Show start. This will help you figure out which auto stage you are willing to spend more time.
Gallery :
show girls in white at 2009 shanghai auto show
show girls in purple at 2009 shanghai auto show
show girls in red at 2009 shanghai auto show
show girls in black at 2009 shanghai auto show
show girls in blue at 2009 shanghai auto show
Show girls who will present Mazda Auto:
Show girls who will present FAW-TOYOTA Auto
Show girls who will present LEXUS Auto
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State television -CCTV - reported that six people were injured in the blast in the remote mountainous Hunan province Friday afternoon that also left two missing.
A man surnamed Hu with the Hunan provincial work safety bureau said it was a privately run illegal mine and police were investigating where the explosives came from. He would not give more details, saying the explosion was still under investigation.
A CCTV report said one shareholder of the mine is already "under police control" and authorities are seeking the other owners.
Police are investigating whether the explosives were stored illegally in the warehouse at the Daling mine in Yongxing county, the report said.
Television footage showed the building was almost flattened by the blast, with a truck 50 meters away bent out of shape.
Large, state-run mines tend to have safety records approaching those of developed countries, while smaller mines have little or no safety equipment and weak worker training. Unlicensed, unregulated mines account for almost 80 percent of China's 16,000 mines, according to government figures.
Beijing has promised for years to improve mine safety, but China's mining industry remains the world's deadliest.
A blast at the Tunlan coal mine in northern China's Shanxi province killed 77 people in February, China's worst industrial accident in a year.
The explosion wave break the glass on windows nearby.
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