Early this morning, China launched into space two new research satellites, one of which was a 25kg "micro satellite" that scientists heralded as a technological breakthrough, the government said.

12 minutes after a Long March 2 C carrier rocket blasted off from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Sichuan province, the carrier rocket first released the 204kg Experiment Satellite 1–described as "China's first transmission-type small satellite capable of stereo mapping." 30 seconds later, the much smaller Nano-satellite 1 was released, which will be used for high-tech experiments. China claims it is only the fourth country to launch a "nano" or "micro" satellite, after Russia, the United States and Britain.