On September 23, the first main reflector antenna was hoisted and steadily put in place at the CEODE Sanya Ground Station, marking an important step forward for China’s earth observation undertakings. Henceforth, the project went into a new development phase of the technological systems.
The ground-breaking ceremony for the Station was held on April 29, and then the construction of its infrastructures and facilities, such as the antenna system, the data receiving, recording and transmitting systems as well as the website management system, and a series of tests smoothly commenced.
Facilitated with two sets of 12m-aperture receiving systems, the Station is planned to be operational in 2010. At the time, an integrated network consisting of the Miyun Ground Station, Kashi Ground Station and Sanya Ground Station to cover the whole country’s territory and 70% of Asia’s will be established. It’s believed that the project will serve to enhance China’s capacity of earth observation and its application on a large scale, facilitate the decision-making of the government and exert a huge impact on the civilian-use earth observation programs in China. |