Tech China weekly highlights

BEIJING, Sept. 20 (Xinhua) -- The following are the highlights of China's major technology news from the past week:

BOEING PRODUCTION LINE

A new production line of the 737-800 Boeing Converted Freighter (BCF) project will be set up in Guangzhou, south China's Guangdong Province.

It is the second production line of the 737-800BCF project under the joint efforts of Boeing and Guangzhou Aircraft Maintenance Engineering Co., Ltd. The project, scheduled to start operation in 2021, will cater to the surging demands for freighters.

FLYING CHINESE ROBOT

Capable of flying at an altitude of 6,000 meters and conducting environmental monitoring, a Chinese self-developed flying robot is helping researchers learn more about the "roof of the world."

The robot named Yunque is capable of conducting high-altitude environmental research and was used to monitor glaciers and lakes during China's second comprehensive scientific expedition to the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.

SEA LAUNCH OF SATELLITES

China successfully sent nine satellites into planned orbit at the Yellow Sea.

The nine satellites, belonging to the Jilin-1 Gaofen 03-1 group, blasted off atop a Long March-11 carrier rocket, China's first sea-launched rocket, at 9:23 a.m. (Beijing Time).

ARJ21 ON NEW ROUTE

China's independently developed ARJ21 regional aircraft has been plying on a new domestic route operated by China Southern Airlines, according to its developer Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC).

The route connects Shanghai and Jieyang, south China's Guangdong Province, and it is the airline's third route in which ARJ21 is operating, said COMAC.

NEW BROADBAND SATELLITE

China's satellite producer GalaxySpace announced that its new broadband communication satellite has entered the assembly stage after the company completed the development of satellite payloads.

The satellite will be the second of the Beijing-based company, which aims to build a broadband satellite constellation in low-Earth orbit and create a global 5G communication network.