China successfully launched a Long March 2C booster from Taiyuan on 26 July, carrying the second Double Star satellite. This will operate with the first Double Star in tandem with the European Space Agency's Cluster 2 satellites to study the interaction between the solar wind and the Earth's magnetic field. Meanwhile Huang Chun Ping, chief of the Chinese manned space programme's Long March 2F launcher, says that the flight of Shenzhou 6 with a two-man crew will take place in 2005, and that a Shenzhou 7 astronaut will make a spacewalk in 2006. India has approved the Indian Space Research Organisation's (ISRO) Rp1,778 million ($38.4 million) Astrosat project. The multi-wavelength astronomy satellite is due be launched in 2007 aboard a four-stage Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle.
Source: Flight International
