The Double Star mission uses two satellites in Earth orbit - each designed, developed, launched, and operated by the China National Space Administration (CNSA).
The first of the two spacecraft (Tan Ce 1, Chinese for 'Explorer 1', also known as TC-1) was launched December 29, 2003 at 19:06 UT. The second spacecraft (TC-2) was launched July 25, 2004 at 07:05 UT. This schedule enables Double Star to operate simultaneously with ESA's Cluster mission.
External links
ESA page (http://www.esa.int/science/doublestar)
ESA Science and Technology page (http://sci.esa.int/science-e/www/area/index.cfm?fareaid=70)
The DoubleStar Project is China's first purely scientific space mission and its first collaboration with the European Space Agency.
DoubleStar is designed for magnetospheric research, using two Chinese spacecraft, TC-1 and TC-2, which each have a payload consisting of both Chinese and European experiments.
The TC-1 spacecraft is in a near-equatorial orbit and TC-2 in a polar orbit.
Since then, DoubleStar and the four Cluster satellites have been conducting an unprecedented study of the sun and Earth from six different viewpoints in space.
ESA officials said the main scientific reason to extend the DoubleStar operation is to complete, in combination with Cluster, the magnetospheric monitoring during the dayside season.
DoubleStar is the first mission conducted by the ESA in collaboration with China's National Space Administration.
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