The country’s first satellite specially designed for seed breeding in space will be launched into orbit in early September, it was announced over the weekend.
The satellite will be in orbit for two weeks before returning to Earth, space officials said at a conference in Beijing on Saturday.
Shijian-8 is expected to carry at least 2,000 varieties of plant seeds in nine categories, including grains, cash crops and forage plants, as well as seeds of fungi and molecular biomaterials that have been sequenced.
Sun Laiyan, chief of the China National Space Administration, said the “seed satellite” will enable scientists to try and cultivate high-yield and high-quality plant varieties.
Exposed to special environment such as cosmic radiation and micro-gravity, some seeds will mutate to such an extent that they may produce much higher yield and improved quality, said Sun.
China’s first ’seed satellite’ set to blast off (People’s Daily)
Also: Lunar programme to be open to world (China Daily)
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