This post was originally published on South China Morning Post.
China’s space programme plans to launch first mission to the sun next year
China is planning to launch its first solar mission next year.The probe, code-named the Advanced Space-based Solar Observatory (ASO-S), is scheduled for lift-off in the first half of 2022. Orbiting 720km (447 miles) above the Earth it will “perform 24-hour continuous observation” for at least four years, state news agency Xinhua said on Thursday.The probe would carry a magnetic detector, a solar telescope and an X-ray imager to track the sun’s magnetic fields and stormy activities, which were…