[March 2, 2014, CMSP News] China Manned Space Agency officially released policies concerning access to Tiangong-1 application data recently to facilitate Tiangong-1 application data’s utilization in the nation's economic and social development and scientific research. It's the first time that Tiangong-1 application data has been open to the public.

Tiangong-1, China's first space target spacecraft that has carried out several rendezvous and docking missions since its launch in 2011, has obtained a huge amount of data with its onboard hyperspectral imagers and detection devices. These data can be of great value in resource exploration, forestry, agriculture, environment observation, etc.

Under the authorization of China Manned Space Agency, Technology and Engineering Center for Space Utilization of Chinese Academy of Sciences is in charge of processing and distribution of Tiangong-1 application data. It provides public users with data in Grade-1 and Grade-2 free of charge. Commercial agents of Tiangong-1 application data will provide paid data service for domestic and international commercial users.

Tiangong-1 Service Platform for Promoting Space Utilization (http://www.msadc.cn/), which is aimed to provide services for users, has been established. Users can visit http://www.msadc.cn/ to learn details about related policies, data acquisition procedure and application cases. (By Yu Yanjuan)