The China National Space Administration said Wednesday that the No. 2 satellite developed by China and Brazil has passed production checks and is ready to lift off later in the year.

The satellite will be sent into orbit by a Long March IV series rocket together with a experimental communication satellite developed by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).

The two countries launched the first earth resources satellite in 1999, which has served for one year and eight months more than its planned service lifetime to send back data widely used in China and Brazil.

Furnished with various advanced cameras, the No. 2 satellite shares similar technologies with its predecessor.

Information from the satellite will be shared by China and Brazil.

In China, data sent by the satellite will be received by stations in Beijing, Urumqi in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and Guangzhou in south China's Guangdong Province.

The satellite can collect images covering all China's land and ocean areas to help observe changes in land resources, measure farming land, calculate timber stocks, forecast crop growth, survey disasters and pollution and prospect for mineral resources.

The two countries are working on the No. 3 and No. 4 resources satellites. When the designed life span of the No. 2 satellite is up in 2006, the No. 3 satellite will be launched to replace it.

(Xinhua News Agency July 30, 2003)