Andrew Jones
November 9, 2015
China launches Yaogan-28 remote sensing satellite from Taiyuan
China on Sunday launched its latest remote sensing satellite on a Long March 4B rocket from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Centre in Shanxi Province in North China.
The Yaogan Weixing-28 payload blasted off at 15:06 Beijing time (09:06 UTC), making it China’s 14th orbital launch of the year so far.
The satellite was made by the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology (SAST), under the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), the main contractor for the Chinese space program, but little is known regarding the uses of the Yaogan Weixing series of remote sensing satellite.
Chinese media describe them generically as being mainly for scientific experiments, land resource surveying, crop yield estimates and disaster prevention and reduction and other fields.
However, western analysts believe the series of satellites are of a military nature, using electronic intelligence (ELINT), electro-optical and synthetic aperture radar sensing equipment.
Spaceflightnow.com has previously claimed that the Yaogan name maybe a cover for a spy satellite program, dedicated to optical and radar imaging, maritime surveillance and related missions.
China’s busy 2015
Saturday’s launch was China’s 14th in 2015, following missions involving fourBeidou global positioning satellites, the Gaofen-8, Gaofen-9 and Yaogan Weixing-27 earth observation satellites, a classified ka-band communication test satellite, the Long March 6 debut, lofting 20 small satellites, and the maiden flight of the solid-fuelled Long March 11.
In October Jilin-1, China’s first self-developed commercial remote sensing satellite, APSTAR-9, developed and launched on behalf of a major regional satellite fleet operator, and the Tianhui-1C Earth observation satellite were put into orbit.
Early November saw the launch of the Zhongxing-2C military communications satellite from the Xichang satellite launch centre.
Earlier in the year, the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, the main contractor for China’s space activities, announced it would perform up to 20 separate launches in 2015, meaning a hectic final quarter of activity.
In December China will launch its DAMPE probe to hunt for dark matter.
The launch was the 216th of China’s Long March rocket families. The first took place in April 1970, when a Long March 1 rocket put China’s first satellite, Dong Fang Hong-1, into orbit.
Return to human spaceflight in 2016
After a busy 2015, China’s space program will attempt to make giant strides in its rocketry capabilities and space station plans next year.
China will make a return to human spaceflight with its first crewed space mission since 2013. Shenzhou-11 will liftoff from Jiuquan and will dock with China’s upcoming second space lab, Tiangong-2, which will be launched in advance of the taikonaut mission.
2016 will also see the new heavy-lift Long March 5 and medium-lift Long March 7 rockets make their debut launches. The two are designed to launch and service China’s future space station, as well as perform a lunar sample return mission in 2017.
Along with the dark matter-seeking DAMPE probe, China will launch three further scientific satellites within the next year to perform quantum science experiments, research space life science, and observe black holes, neutron stars and other phenomena.
China to launch four scientific space probes over the next year -https://t.co/5a3Dnaqvyd pic.twitter.com/Goj9otKRz8
— World and Science (@WorldAndScience) November 3, 2015
In October Chinese state media revealed discussions on potential deep space exploration, including missions to Mars, Jupiter, asteroids, and, in the longer term, a crewed deep space mission.
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