Jan 30 1984
From The Space Library
The People's Republic of China (PRC) announced that it had launched on January 29 a space satellite that achieved "important results," and the New York Times reported that Western experts speculated that the launch could be the debut of a more powerful Chinese rocket and the nation's first communications satellite, They added that the launching could mean that China had joined the United States, the Soviet Union, and the European Space Agency (ESA) in its capability to loft satellites into geostationary orbits 22,300 miles above the Earth, the orbit favored for commercial and military communications satellites. There were no details of the satellite launched; only "Close observation is being undertaken of the satellite's operations," from China's official Xinhua new agency.
There had been reports as early as 1980 that China was developing a three-stage rocket for boosting heavy payloads. (NY Times, Jan 31/84, C-8)
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