JIUQUAN -- China on Monday sent an ocean-observing satellite successfully into space, a joint mission pursued under close Sino-French space cooperation that will enable scientists to study, for the first time, ocean surface winds and waves simultaneously.

The China-France Oceanography Satellite (CFOSat), atop a Long March-2C carrier rocket, took off at 8:43 am from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, in northwest China's Gobi Desert, and entered a sun-synchronous orbit 520 km above the Earth.

Jointly developed by the China National Space Administration (CNSA) and the Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales, the French space agency, the satellite will conduct 24-hour observations of global wave spectrum, effective wave height and ocean surface wind field, said Zhao Jian, a senior official with the CNSA.