Briefly

Environment detection satellite taken to orbit

China launched a Long March 2D carrier rocket to send a multitask satellite into orbit on Wednesday morning, according to China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp. The State-owned space contractor said in a news release that the rocket blasted off at 7:15 am at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern China's Gobi Desert and transported the Yunhai 1-03 satellite into its preset orbit. The satellite is tasked with surveying atmospheric, marine and space environments, providing data to support disaster prevention and mitigation efforts, and carrying out scientific experiments, it noted. The Long March 2D rocket is propelled by liquid propellants and has a liftoff thrust of 300 metric tons. It is capable of sending spacecraft with a combined weight of 1.3 tons to a sun-synchronous orbit with an altitude of 700 kilometers. The launch was the 438th flight of the Long March rocket fleet and China's 38th space mission this year.

Artificially bred panda cub born in Shaanxi

An artificially bred giant panda cub was born at a breeding base in Northwest China's Shaanxi province. A giant panda, named An'an gave birth to a female cub on Monday at the Qinling Giant Panda Research Center. The cub, weighing 132.8 grams at birth, was in good health, the center said. In August, Yongyong and Qinqin, two pandas at the center, gave birth to a pair of male cubs and a pigeon pair of cubs, respectively. So far this year, the center has witnessed the birth of five artificially bred cubs, which raised its number of Qinling giant pandas in captivity to 41, the center added. The Qinling giant panda is a subspecies of the giant panda first recognized in 2005. It has a smaller and rounder skull, shorter snout and less fur than the more familiar Sichuan subspecies. Shaanxi began artificially raising Qinling giant pandas in the 1980s.

Xinhua - China Daily