The China National Space Administration has joined the International Charter “Space and Major Disasters,” an international initiative that provides free satellite imagery of areas affected by disasters, the European Space Agency (ESA) announced.
China will provide access to its imagery archives as well as new data collected by its satellites. China launched the Yaogan-2 remote sensing satellite May 25 and also operates the Yaogan-1 spacecraft.
The International Charter “Space and Major Disasters” was initiated by ESA and CNES, the French space agency, in July 1999 and has provided services about 125 times since its inception, most recently for flooding in Uruguay in early May.
Other members include: the British National Space Center/Disaster Monitoring Constellation, the Canadian Space Agency, the Indian Space Research Organization, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.