Mr. Chairman,
It is with great honor that I'm attending this session of the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee of the 47th session of COPUOS as the head of the Chinese delegation. Please allow me at the outset to congratulate you on your assumption as Chairman of this session and I'm confident that under your able guidance, our meeting will be crowned with success.
The Chinese government has always considered space as part of the national comprehensive development strategy, which focuses on the exploration and use of outer space for peaceful purposes and for the benefit of all mankind. In 2009, China has made further progress in its space activities. The Chinese delegation has submitted a report on these new achievements, together with a CD-Rom of the report, which we kindly ask the Secretariat to circulate at this meeting. Now with pleasure I would like to present to you some of the main progresses China has made in its space activities.
China carried out 6 launches of carrier rockets in 2009 and by 30 December 2009, China had conducted a total of 121 launches of Long March series carrier rockets.
In 2009, China launched 6 satellites developed by itself. They included the No.2 satellite of the Beidou Navigation Satellite System as well as the No.3 satellite of the same system, which was launched on 17 January this year. They also included the remote sensing satellites No. 6, 7 and 8, which are mainly used for land and resource survey, environment monitoring and protection, disaster mitigation, city planning as well as earth observation and scientific experiments in space, No.11 Experiment satellite for space science and technology experiments and No. 1 Hope satellite for scientific experiments by China's youth.
China operates its own polar-orbiting and geostationary meteorological satellites, which have become part of the world earth observation network and we believe they will play an ever-important role in the international meteorological observation and response to global climate change. In 2009, Fengyun No. 2 C/D double satellites and Fengyun No. 3 A satellite were used in conjunction to carry our dynamic observation of the weather phenomenon such as sand and dust, typhoon and strong countercurrent flows and provided an important tool for the global disaster monitoring service in monitoring forest fire, daytime heat, drought, snowfall, etc. The Fengyun meteorological satellite data broadcasting system, together with the European and US satellite broadcasting systems, have jointly formed the international satellite date sharing network.
By the end of 2009, the No. 2B earth resource satellite jointly developed by China and Brazil had provided users with more than 900,000 data sets, which have been used effectively in agriculture, forestry, water management, mining, environment monitoring and disaster management and have received positive acknowledgements from various countries and users. Currently the competent government agencies of China and Brazil are in the process of formulating proactive data policies with a view to providing African region with satellite data collected by No. 2B China-Brazil earth resource satellite.
In 2009 China was hit frequently by serious natural disasters. The small satellite constellation developed by China for environment and disaster monitoring and forecasting played an important role in providing information, monitoring and assessment products on various disasters and disaster relief operations in China, such as the snow disaster in Tibet, icicle in Yellow River, drought in Northern China, reconstruction of Wenchuan city in the aftermath of earthquake. At the same time, China, in cooperation with the Australian government, provided space data and information service on forest fire in Australia. China's No. 1 Ocean satellite is operating reliably in orbit and is being used extensively in monitoring oil spills on the sea, red tides, aqua environment, ocean surface temperatures, etc., thereby playing an important role in marine environment protection.
On 1 March 2009, the first Chinese lunar probe Chang'e No. 1 made a precision landing at the prescribed impact site on the moon, marking the successful completion of the first stage of China's moon exploration project. Now this project has moved into its second stage and the second stage project of China's manned spaceflight program is moving ahead smoothly as planned.
China has conducted active space scientific researches, actively supported the international cooperation in this regard and achieved varying degrees of progress in the fields of space astronomy, solar physics, space physics, solar system exploration and micro-gravity science, etc. China National Space Administration, in close cooperation with Cluster II of the Magnetosphere Exploration Program of ESA, has provided six dimensional probe of the geospace for the first time in human history, bringing the multi-level, multi-spatial and temporal scale research on geospace weather into a new era. Many important scientific discoveries have been made by using the original observation data.
China conducted exchanges and cooperation activities with many countries and international organizations in 2009. Since the establishment of Asia-Pacific Space Cooperation Organization, China has actively supported its work and made further contribution to the promotion of space technologies and their application in Asia-Pacific region.
In keeping with the principle of peaceful use of outer space, China has adopted active measures for space debris mitigation and stands ready to carry out active cooperation in this field.
Mr. Chairman,
The Chinese government always maintains that outer space is the common wealth of mankind and strongly advocates for the peaceful exploration and use of outer space. Based on the principle of peaceful use, equality and mutual benefits and common development, China is willing to strengthen its exchanges and cooperation with all the other counties in the world in order to ensure that space technologies will be better used to promote the social and economic development.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.