Chinese vessel departs for maritime missions monitoring spacecraft

NANJING, June 9 (Xinhua) -- China's tracking vessel Yuanwang-7 departed from a port in east China's Jiangsu Province Friday to go on four missions of spacecraft monitoring.

"The missions include following the progress of the BeiDou-3 satellite," said Zhou Yunshan, captain of Yuanwang-7. "At the same time, Yuanwang-5 and Yuanwang-6 are sailing on the sea, carrying out tasks such as joint training, tracking targets and real combat training."

In the second half of 2017, Yuanwang vessels will carry out 16 maritime space monitoring missions, including one for the Chang'e-5 lunar probe.

Yuanwang-21 and Yuanwang-22 will set sail for missions including the maritime transport of the Long March-5 carrier rocket.