BEIJING, Oct. 6 (Xinhua) -- The following are the highlights of China's key technology news from the past week:

OBSERVATION SATELLITE

China sent its observation satellite into space from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in north China's Shanxi Province at 2:51 a.m. Saturday (Beijing Time). The satellite, Gaofen-10, was launched aboard a Long March-4C rocket and entered the planned orbit successfully.

Gaofen-10 will be used in land survey, urban planning, road network design, crop yield estimate, as well as disaster relief. It can also serve key national strategies such as the Belt and Road Initiative.

RESEARCH VESSEL

China's research vessel Kexue, or Science, departed for the western Pacific Ocean Thursday from a pier of east China's coastal city of Qingdao on a research mission of the National Natural Science Foundation of China.

During the expected 80-day voyage, 44 scientists from 12 research institutes and universities aboard the vessel will conduct 40 research projects in various fields such as marine physics and marine geomatics.

RADIO BURST MONITORING

Chinese scientists are paying close attention to a repeating fast radio burst by making follow-up observations during the country's National Day holiday.

The repetitive burst, code-named FRB121102, was first discovered in September when researchers processed daily cosmic radio signal data received by the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope (FAST), also dubbed as the "China Sky Eye."

HIGH-TECH MANUFACTURING

China's high-tech manufacturing industry posted rapid growth in August, said official data.

The value-added output of high-tech manufacturing in August went up 6.1 percent year on year, 1.7 percentage points faster than that of all major industrial enterprises, said the National Bureau of Statistics.