China has successfully launched a space environment-monitoring rocket from the tropical island province of Hainan.

The rocket launch is part of the country’s space monitoring ‘Meridian Project’, a Chinese Government-supported, ground-based network program designed to monitor the solar-terrestrial space environment.

Short for the Meridian Space Weather Monitoring Project, the ‘Meridian Project’ was proposed in 1995 by several Chinese research institutes and universities.

The project aims to conduct a comprehensive, inter-disciplinary survey and exploration of space environments through advanced ground-based techniques.

According to a statement from the Centre for Space Science and Applied Research of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Tianying-3C rocket, provided by the Academy of Aerospace Solid Propulsion Technology under China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, was launched at 7am on May 7.

“Successful launch of the rocket marks a new starting point of our country’s space research,’ said Wu Ji, manager of Ministry of Meridian Project construction.

‘It rebuilds the test platform of using sounding rocket, which can obtain detecting parameters at near air and electrical field, also carry out some flight tests of new loads. Moreover, it is a test platform for micro-gravity and life science,” Wu said.

Utilising radio, optics and sounding rockets, the project carries out a continuous monitoring operation for obtaining relevant space environment parameters on the geomagnetic field, electrical field, wind field, air density, temperature and its composition in the middle and high layers of the atmosphere, ionosphere, magnetosphere and interplanetary space.

A chain of observatories using multiple instruments, including magnetometers and radars, have been established along 120 degrees East longitude from Mohe, the most Northern station in China, through Beijing and Hainan and extending to the Chinese Zhongshan Station in the Antarctic.

The International Space Weather Meridian Circle Program (ISWMPC) has proposed to connect 120 degrees East Meridian chains of ground-based monitors to enhance the ability of monitoring space environments worldwide. Discussions will be taking place with Australia and Russia to consider cooperation in the project.

The Meridian Project represents a big step to enhancing the country’s innovative capabilities in space technology.