A Chinese-Brazilian environmental monitoring satellite launched from northern China failed to enter orbit, state media and experts say, in a rare setback for the country's ambitious space program.
The satellite, meant to be a key tool in Brazil's efforts to control Amazon rainforest deforestation and to monitor its huge agribusiness sector, blasted off from Taiyuan Satellite Launch Centre in Shanxi province on a Long March 4B rocket at 11.26am (2.26pm AEDT) on Monday, Xinhua says.
The satellite is known as CBERS-3 (China-Brazil Earth Resources Satellite 3), or Ziyuan I-03 in Chinese. Ziyuan is the Chinese word for "resource".
In Brazil, the National Institute for Space Research (INPE) said in a statement that following failure of the launcher, "the satellite was not positioned in the planned orbit".
"Preliminary evaluations suggest that the CBERS-3 returned to Earth."
The CBERS remote-sensing satellite program grew out of a bilateral partnership agreement signed in 1988.
The satellite is based on the Chinese Ziyuan 1 design but includes Brazilian-designed mission payload.
Three satellites of the series were launched in 1999, 2003 and 2007 aboard Chinese-made Long March rockets.
A CBERS-4 is due to be launched in 2015.
China launched its first moon rover mission last week, the latest step in an ambitious space program seen as a symbol of its rising global stature.
The rover - known as Yutu, or "Jade Rabbit" - is due to land on the moon in mid-December.
China sees its space program as a symbol of its growing international status and technological advancement, as well as of the Communist Party's success in reversing the fortunes of the once-impoverished nation.
It aims to establish a permanent space station by 2020 and eventually send a human to the moon.