China and Brazil put a new, jointly developed, earth observation satellite into operation on Tuesday. The move represents a landmark in Sino-Brazilian space collaboration, said Brazil’s Ambassador to China, Valdemar Carneiro Leão.

The China-Brazil Earth Resource Satellite-04 (CBERS-04) was developed by China Academy of Space Technology and Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research and sent to orbit in December.

According to state-run Chinese newspaper China Daily, Brazil’s Ambassador also said the CBERS program has become an icon of South-South co-operation.

Tian Yulong, Chief Engineer of the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense, said – as also quoted by the same news outlet – that data and images obtained by the satellite have been given to “more than 10 developing countries, especially those in Africa”.

The aim, Mr Tian said, is to help those developing countries “with their land resources exploration, forest protection, hydropower projects and disaster prevention”.

CBERS-04 is the fourth satellite to have been sent into orbit by China and Brazil since 1999, under a co-operation agreement signed by both countries in 1988, Chinese state-run news agency Xinhua reported.

According to China Daily, a new satellite – CBERS 4A – is already under development and is due to be launched in 2018.