BEIJING, Oct 29: China put a communications and broadcast satellite into orbit on Sunday, the latest in a 10-year string of successful space launches, the official Xinhua news agency said.

The SinoSat-2 satellite, launched from the Xichang launch centre in the south-western province of Sichuan, is designed to serve live television signals and digital broadband multimedia systems in China, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, it said.

The Long March-3B carrier rocket lifted off at 12.20am on Sunday (1620 GMT on Saturday) and the satellite split from the rocket 25 minutes later and entered geosynchronous orbit.

It will be moved into position above the equator, Xinhua said. It was China’s 51st straight successful space launch since October 1996, Xinhua said..—Reuters