China, France plan to launch first joint oceanic satellite in 2018

The first satellite jointly developed by the Chinese and French space agencies will be launched from China in the second half of 2018.

The China-French Oceanic Satellite is being tested in a Beijing-based assembly testing center of the China National Space Administration, said the administration Friday.

The 700-kilogram satellite will be primarily used for waves forecast and monitoring, as well as research in floating ice, polar glacier and ocean dynamics.

The satellite will carry a wave-scatterometer spectrometer developed by the French space agency and a wind-measurement scatterometer by Chinese scientists. It will be sent into space by a Chinese Long March carrier rocket.