Manufacturing

Y-20, China's homegrown large transport aircraft, officially joined the People's Liberation Army Air Force on 6th July 2016.

With a maximum takeoff weight of 200 tonnes, the Y-20 is ideal for transporting cargo and personnel over long distances in diverse weather conditions.

China conducted the first flight of the new-generation Long March rocket on Saturday night, marking the first use of the Wenchang Satellite Launch Center in the island province of Hainan.

The rocket took off from its launch pad at the Wenchang center at 8pm and put a Yuanzheng 1A restartable upper stage into space. The Yuanzheng 1A released six payloads into their preset orbits.

Photographed on May 25th 2016, The Shanghai Engineering Center for Microsatellites (SECM).

China is likely to be building and supplying at least 10 percent of the world's satellites by 2020, according to a leading space researcher.

"A forecast by a foreign consultancy points out that around 1,000 satellites will be launched before 2020 to meet the demands of the market and we believe Chinese-developed satellites will account for more than 10 percent of that market," said Yuan Minhui, the director of the Beijing Institute of Space Science and Technology Information. Yuan, who spoke to China Daily on Monday on the sidelines of the Third China International Satellite Service Business Matching event, which is aimed at promoting Chinese satellites in the international market, said the role will only continue to grow.

China launched a new civilian high-resolution mapping satellite on Monday from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in Shanxi province.

The 2.7-tonne Ziyuan III 02 satellite took off on the back of a Long March 4B rocket at 11:17 am Beijing time, according to the center. It was the 228th flight mission by a Long March carrier rocket.

Also on board the rocket were two NewSat satellites from Uruguay. All three satellites have entered preset orbits, the Taiyuan center said in a statement.