China's Yuanwang-3 departs for monitoring missions

NANJING, March 13 (Xinhua) -- The space-tracking ship Yuanwang-3 is sailing to the Pacific Ocean from a port in east China's Jiangsu Province Wednesday for upcoming monitoring missions.

This year, the ship will carry out two maritime space monitoring missions, which will last about two months.

The mission members have conducted a series of training programs and tests before the voyage, to increase emergency response.

Yuanwang-3, which entered service in the mid-1990s, is China's second-generation space tracking ship. Sailing more than 650,000 nautical miles, it has completed 80 missions, including maritime tracking of the Shenzhou spacecraft, Chang'e lunar probe and BeiDou satellites.