22 December 2016
China launched a carbon dioxide monitoring satellite via a Long March-2D rocket from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the northwest Gobi Desert at 3:22 a.m. on 22 December. China is the third country after Japan and the United States to monitor greenhouse gases through its own satellite. The 620-kg satellite TanSat was sent into a sun synchronous orbit about 700 kilometers above the Earth and will monitor the concentration, distribution and flow of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere, said Yin Zengshan, Chief Designer of TanSat at the Chinese Academy of Sciences micro-satellite research institute.
MORE...