BEIJING, Dec. 22 (Xinhua) -- The following are the highlights of China's key technology news from the past week:
LONG MARCH-5 ROCKET
The third Long March-5 rocket, China's largest carrier rocket, was vertically transported to the launching area at the Wenchang Space Launch Center in south China's Hainan Province on Saturday.
The carrier rocket, coded as Long March-5 Y3, is planned to be launched at the end of December, according to the China National Space Administration.
CHINA-BRAZIL SATELLITE
A new satellite, jointly developed by China and Brazil, was sent into space on Friday.
The China-Brazil Earth Resource Satellite-4A (CBERS-4A) was launched on a Long March-4B carrier rocket at 11:22 a.m. Friday Beijing Time from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in north China's Shanxi Province.
The satellite is the sixth satellite under the earth resource satellite cooperation program between the two countries. It will obtain global optical remote-sensing data and support the Brazilian government's monitoring of the Amazon rainforest and the country's environmental changes.
BEIDOU SYSTEM
China completed the deployment of the core BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) constellation after successfully sending the 52nd and 53rd BDS satellites into space Monday, setting a new world record for deploying a global satellite navigation system.
The BDS-3 project has entered the final sprint phase, said Yang Changfeng, chief designer of the BDS. In order to provide global service with greater performance, China plans to launch two geostationary orbit satellites by June 2020 and finish building the BDS-3 system.
