China lofts three military Yaogan satellites in Chang Zheng 4C launch
March 12, 2021
China continues to upgrade its oceanic surveillance systems with the launch of three new satellites from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. The Group 04 of Yaogan Weixing-31 satellites launched at 02:20 UTC on 13 March from launch pad 94 of the LC-43 launch complex on a Chang Zheng 4C rocket.
As usual, Chinese media refer to the new satellites as being used “for electromagnetic environment surveys and other related technology tests,” and the mission is similar to the Yaogan-31 Group 01, Group 02, and Group 03 launched on April 10, 2018 and January 29 and February 24, 2021.
This designation of the Yaogan Weixing series is used to hide the true military nature of the satellites. In this case, the three satellites are orbited in a flying formation like a type of NOSS (Naval Ocean Surveillance System, considered as the Jianbing-8 military series.
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Chinese Hyperbola-1 rocket fails during its second launch
February 1, 2021
The Chinese private space launch company i-Space (Beijing Interstellar Glory Space Technology Ltd.) developed Hyperbola-1 (Shian Quxian-1) rocket failed in its second launch on Monday in an attempt to orbit the small Fangzhou-2 (Ark-2) satellite. The launch took place at 08:15 UTC from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center.
Available images from the launch show the vehicle in trouble after leaving the launch complex. Around the time of MaxQ, smoke is seeing coming from the frontal part of the launcher that disintegrated a few seconds later, with debris raining on the desert landscape around the launch site.
Long March 4C lofts three Yaogan Weixing-31 satellites
January 29, 2021
China launched its second orbital mission in 2021, orbiting three new satellites from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center on Friday. The launch took place from Launch Pad 94 of the LC43 launch complex using the Long March-4C (Y31) rocket.
The Yaogan Weixing-31 Group-02 mission comprises three satellites, with Chinese media referring to the new satellites to be used “for electromagnetic environment surveys and other related technology tests.”
This mission is similar to the Yaogan- 31 Group-01 launched on April 10, 2018, but the satellites were orbited in a new orbital plane at 43 degrees E from the previous triplet.
China named the satellite ‘Yaogan Weixing-33’, but on May 22, 2019, another Yaogan Weixing-33 was lost on a Long March-4C launch failure that occurred a few minutes after launch from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center.
The lost Yaogan-33 was likely the second satellite of the successor series to the Yaogan Weixing-1 (Jianbing-5) class space-based synthetic aperture radar (SAR) system. The first satellite of this second generation SAR was Yaogan-29, launched on November 26, 2015.
Another small satellite, Weina Jishu Shiyan, was also launched on this mission. The small satellite will be used for scientific research, according to the Chinese media.
Both satellites have become the final satellites to be orbited by China in 2020 and the last satellites on the nation’s 13th Five-Year Plan.