China launches cube satellites for tracking civil aircrafts, ships Friday September 25,2015

 

China has successfully launched three cube satellites (CubeSats) to help track civil aircraft and ships

The satellites, equipped with receivers to gather information from civil flights and ships, were launched on Friday September 25,2015 in a mission coded STU-2 and have entered their designated orbit, according to the mission's chief designer, Wu Shufan.

In the satellites' monitoring area, the paths and traffic flow of civil flights can be tracked in real time, with the intention that aviation tragedies, like the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, can be avoided in the future.

The use of cube satellites rather than integral ones is due to their being smaller, lighter and much more economical in development and production costs.