HELSINKI — China has added new spacecraft to 2 separate categorised satellite tv for pc sequence with a pair of launches throughout Sunday and Monday.
A Lengthy March 3C rocket lifted off from Xichang Satellite tv for pc Launch Middle at 2:09 p.m. Japanese (1809 UTC), Could 12, climbing into the evening sky above the spaceport. The Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Know-how (SAST), a significant arm of state-owned major area contractor CASC, introduced launch success inside an hour of liftoff.
The launch efficiently despatched the communication know-how experiment satellite-19, or Tongxin Jishu Shiyan-19 (TJS-19), into geosynchronous switch orbit. Airspace closure notices indicated the launch was imminent, however the id of the payload was solely revealed post-launch.
The satellite tv for pc is described as “primarily used to hold out multi-band, high-speed satellite tv for pc communication know-how verification.” SAST revealed neither photographs nor technical particulars of the satellite tv for pc.
The TJS sequence primarily operates in geostationary orbit (GEO). It’s seen by Western analysts as doubtlessly finishing up categorised missions together with alerts intelligence, early warning missions and satellite tv for pc inspection actions to help the Folks’s Liberation Military (PLA). China now has 17 major TJS satellites in orbit, with no obvious TJS-8 satellite tv for pc, and the newest launches skipping TJS-18.
A SAST mission patch seems to depict the King of the South, one of many 4 Heavenly Kings; a set of Buddhist deities every guarding one cardinal course of the world. Patches for the sooner launches of TJS-15, 16 and 17, throughout March and April, every additionally featured one of many deities. The launches used a mixture of Lengthy March 7A rockets lifting off from Wenchang, and Lengthy March 3B and 3C rockets from Xichang. The 3C makes use of two facet boosters whereas the 3B makes use of 4.
TJS-15 is situated at 90.2 levels East on the geostationary (GEO) belt, above a place off the western coast of Indonesia. TJS-16 and 17 are situated at 152.5 and 152.8 levels East respectively, round 200 kilometers aside, and above the offshore islands of Papua New Guinea.
China launched its first TJS satellite tv for pc in 2015, however has launched 9 such satellites over the previous 12 months and a half. Notable missions embody TJS-13, launched in December 2024, becoming a member of two different Chinese language satellites, Shiyan-10 (01) and Shiyan-10 (02), in a extremely elliptical, Molniya-like orbit, and TJS-3, launched in 2018, which launched an object which carried out subsequent maneuvers.
Yaogan-40 (02)
Monday’s launch adopted a little bit over 24 hours after China added to its categorised Yaogan satellite tv for pc sequence.
A Lengthy March 6A rocket lifted off from Taiyuan Satellite tv for pc Launch Middle, North China, at 9:27 a.m. Japanese (1327 UTC), Could 11. CASC introduced launch success round an hour after liftoff, revealing the passengers to be the Yaogan-40 (02) group. It briefly described the satellites as primarily for use for electromagnetic surroundings detection and associated technical experiments.
At time of reporting, the U.S. Area Power had not but cataloged objects from the launch. Nevertheless, airspace closure notices counsel the spacecraft have been despatched right into a close to polar orbit. This echoes the launch of the Yaogan-40 (01) group in September 2023, which entered near-polar orbits after launch on a Lengthy March 6A from Taiyuan.
Yaogan (“distant sensing”) satellites are considered for customers together with navy prospects, with makes use of thought to incorporate optical imaging, artificial aperture radar (SAR) and digital intelligence (ELINT) satellites.
Few particulars, if any, can be found concerning the satellites. They’re usually described as being for functions together with land survey, crop yield estimation, environmental administration, meteorological warning and forecasting, and catastrophe prevention and discount or “electromagnetic surroundings detection and associated checks.”
Busy week of launches, Tianwen-2
The missions have been China’s twenty fourth and twenty fifth orbit launch makes an attempt of 2025. A sequence of launches are anticipated this week, with Lengthy March 2D and Zhuque-2 launches anticipated from Jiuquan, northwest China, and a sea launch of the Ceres-1 stable rocket.
The launch of the Tianwen-2 close to Earth asteroid pattern return and major belt comet mission is anticipated from Xichang earlier than the top of the month.
