China successfully
sent a Bolivian communications satellite into orbit with its Long
March-3B carrier rocket at 0:42 a.m.(Beijing Time) Saturday Dec 21,2013
People in Bolivia have been celebrating the launch of the country's first telecommunications satellite.
Cheering crowds gathered in front of big television screens
in La Paz to watch the rocket carrying the satellite blast off from a
base in China.
The launch took place at 12:42 Bolivian time (16:42 GMT) from Xichang Satellite Launch Centre in China's southwest Sichuan province.
The satellite is named Tupak Katari, after an indigenous hero who fought Spanish colonial rule.
The satellite, also known as Tksat-1, cost $302m (£185m) and was financed by the China Development Bank.
It will reach its orbit over the Equator in about 10 days and will be fully operational in March, said Bolivian Space Agency director Ivan Zambrana.
The device, weighing more than 5.2 tonnes, will speed up and improve the quality of telephone and internet connections in Bolivia
Bolivian President Evo Morales, who was in China for the launch, said it would end Bolivia's dependence on foreign powers for its communications.
"This will be our light, after living for so many years in the obscurity, the suffering and the domination of the empires,"
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