BEIJING, July 26 (Xinhua) -- The following are the highlights of China's major technology news from the past week:
MARS PROBE
China launched a Mars probe on Thursday, designed to complete orbiting, landing and roving in one mission, taking the first step in its planetary exploration of the solar system.
A Long March-5 rocket, China's largest launch vehicle, carrying the spacecraft with a mass of about 5 tonnes, soared into the sky from the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site on the coast of southern China's island province of Hainan at 12:41 p.m. (Beijing Time).
About 36 minutes later, the spacecraft, including an orbiter and a rover, was sent into the Earth-Mars transfer orbit, embarking on an almost seven-month journey to the red planet, according to the China National Space Administration (CNSA).
China's first Mars mission is named Tianwen-1, which means Questions to Heaven and comes from a poem written by Qu Yuan (about 340-278 BC), one of the greatest poets of ancient China. The name signifies the Chinese nation's perseverance in pursuing truth and science and exploring nature and the universe, said the CNSA.
AG600 AMPHIBIOUS AIRCRAFT
China's indigenously developed AG600 large amphibious aircraft succeeded in its maiden flight over sea on Sunday morning in Qingdao, east China's Shandong Province, its developer announced.
The aircraft took off from the sea off Qingdao at 10:18 a.m. and completed the test flight after flying for about 31 minutes, said state-owned plane-maker Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC).
HIGH-RESOLUTION MAPPING SATELLITE
China sent a new high-resolution mapping satellite into space on Saturday from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in the northern province of Shanxi.
The Ziyuan III 03 satellite was launched by a Long March-4B rocket at 11:13 a.m. Beijing time, according to the center. It was the 341st flight mission by the Long March rocket series.
Also on board the rocket were two satellites used for dark matter detection and commercial data acquisition respectively. They were developed by the Shanghai ASES Spaceflight Technology Co. Ltd.
All three satellites have entered preset orbits, sources with the Taiyuan center said.
SATELLITE NETWORK MONITORS FLOOD
The National Satellite Ocean Application Service (NSOAS) has used the HY-1C, HY-1D and Gaofen-3 satellite network to conduct continuous monitoring of the flood situation along Poyang Lake, China's largest freshwater lake, in the eastern province of Jiangxi.
The network formed by the three satellites can receive flood data two times every three days. Since June 17, the NSOAS has processed more than 40 scenes of image data.
YUANWANG-3 COMPLETES MAINTENANCE
China's space tracking ship Yuanwang-3 has set sail from a Shanghai-based shipyard after completing maintenance in early July.
Cao Zhiyi, captain of Yuanwang-3, said the maintenance, focusing on the shafts and propellers, has improved the reliability of the ship's power system. Enditem
