BEIJING, Dec. 1 (Xinhua) - The following are the highlights of China's key technology news from the past week:

ROCKET-CARRYING SHIPS

(File photo: VCG)

China's rocket-carrying ships Yuanwang-21 and Yuanwang-22 wrapped up their mission of transporting the Long March-5 Y3 rocket and arrived at a port in eastern Jiangsu Province Monday.

The two rocket-carrying ships departed from northern China's Tianjin Port on Oct. 22 and arrived at Qinglan Port in Wenchang in southern Hainan Province after a five-day voyage.

NEW EARTH OBSERVATION SATELLITE

China sent a new Earth observation satellite into space from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in northern China's Shanxi Province at 7:52 a.m. Thursday (Beijing Time).

The satellite, Gaofen-12, was launched aboard a Long March-4C rocket and entered the planned orbit successfully. It was the 320th flight mission of the Long March carrier rocket series.

Gaofen-12 will be used in land surveys, urban planning, road network design and crop yield estimate, as well as disaster relief. It can also serve projects along the Belt and Road.

MINE INDUSTRY WITH 5G

China's coal mining industry is embracing an upgrade with the assistance of 5G-based technology.

After inking a framework agreement with China Mobile and Huawei this September, China's largest hard coal producer Yangquan Coal Industry Group in Shanxi has successfully deployed an underground 5G base station in one of its coal mines as part of the move to promote 5G-based intelligent mining.

ARTIFICIAL SUN

The HL-2M Tokamak, China's next-generation "artificial sun," is expected to be operational in 2020 as installation work has gone smoothly since the delivery of the coil system in June.

Designed to replicate the natural reactions that occur in the sun using hydrogen and deuterium gases as fuels, the device aims at providing clean energy through controlled nuclear fusion.

NEW METEOROLOGICAL SATELLITES

China has started the design of Fengyun-5 meteorological satellites and the third generation polar orbit meteorological satellite observation system, according to the Science and Technology Daily Thursday.

The new satellites and observation system will conduct high-precision global 3D atmospheric detection, the report quoted Zhang Peng, deputy director of National Satellite Meteorological Center as saying.