Encouraged by Tuesday's successful launch of AsiaSat-6 communications satellite for a Hong Kong firm, China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, China's leading space technology company, has announced it will launch AsiaSat-6B, another communications satellite for the firm.

The AsiaSat-6's launch was the first commercial launch atop a Chinese-made rocket in seven years.

A spokesman for the company did not specify when AsiaSat-6B of APT Satellite Limited will be launched. He said same type of rocket would be used to launch the satellite from Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China's Sichuan Province.

The spokesman said AsiaSat-6B will be different from AsiaSat-6, which had a platform and payload manufactured by French satellite manufacturer Alcatel.

With the Chinese-made satellite platform Dongfanghong IV, AsiaSat-6B will have only the payload manufactured by Alcatel.

The satellite platform, developed by the Chinese Academy of Space Technology, is a new generation type of universal platform for international communications market, said the spokesman.

Satellites with the platform will havepowerful transmitting capacities and long life spans, said the spokesman.

China put the AsiaSat-6 into space Tuesday night atop the Chinese-made Long March 3B rocket from the launching center in Xichang to replace AsiaSat-1A.

A spokesman for China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology, said the flight is the 84th successful flight of China's Long-March launch vehicle since its maiden voyage in 1970, and the 42nd consecutive successful flight since October of 1996.

The successful launch has proved that the Long March rocket, which has the largest carrying capacity in China's rockets, can project a satellite weighing 5,100 kg into orbit.

The expert said the 62 successful flights of the rockets developed by the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology helped put 39 Chinese satellites, 28 overseas satellites and five space vessels, including a manned one, into orbit during the past 35 years.

China announced in 1985 its decision to enter the international commercial launch market, and it successfully launched a US-made-satellite AsiaSat-1 in 1990.