China's Space Program News Thread

[taxiya]

Promotion video of CZ-6A from CASC.

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The interesting part is the two in circles.

The one in the blue circle is a mystery. It looks slightly thinner than CZ-6A (3.35m), I guess it is around 3m or slightly lower. The only new rocket from CASC of this diameter is SD-3 (捷龙-3, successor to CZ-11) which is to be launched in 2022. But in open source, SD-3 is 2.65m diameter which is a bit thinner than what the photo here shows. Also, SD-3's fairings are 2, 3 and 3.35m. This rocket seems have fairing of the same diameter. I guess it is likely SD-3 but depiction isn't 100% accurate.

The one in red circle seems to be the rumoured CZ-8A or the 2 stage option of the "new high orbit medium rocket". I think they are the same thing. The fairing is like 5m or more.

It seems to me that CZ-8 and CZ-7 are two parallel paths. The difference is that 7 is one stage more than 8 and higher payload capacity. 7 and 8 are for lower orbit, while 7A and 8A are for higher orbit.

 

[KYli]

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[SanWenYu]

At 7:47 on April 7, a CZ-4C rocket was launched from Jiuquan. The rocket sent the third Gaofen-3 satellite into orbit successfully.

The three Gaofen-3 sateliites in orbit will form a constellation.

4月7日7时47分，长征四号丙运载火箭在我国酒泉卫星发射中心点火起飞，随后将高分三号03星送入预定轨道，发射取得圆满成功。

高分三号03星由中国航天科技集团有限公司五院抓总研制，与已在轨的高分三号和高分三号02星将形成组网运行状态，满足海洋、应急、国土、地质、环保、水利、农业、气象等多行业用户的海陆观测快速重访需求，为多极化合成孔径雷达卫星数据业务化应用提供支撑。

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This Gaofen-3 satellite carries a C-band multi-polarimetric SAR. The radar has the highest resolution of 1m and max image width (最大成像幅宽) of 650km. This radar has 20 image modes (成像工作模式). It's the best C-band SAR in the world. It can "monitor moving oceanic targets and measure ocean flow fields in high resolution (高精度运动目标检测和海洋流场测量)".

When the constellation becomes operational, it will have a max revisit period (重访周期) of 12 hrs and average period of 4.8 hrs.

当天早上成功发射的高分三号03星主载荷为该院研制的C频段多极化合成孔径雷达(SAR)，其最高分辨率1米，具备全极化能力，最大成像幅宽650千米，成像工作模式扩展到20种，为目前国际上综合性能最高的C波段合成孔径雷达卫星。

高分三号星座组网运行后，全球观测的最大重访周期从84小时缩短至12小时，平均重访周期从12小时缩短至4.8小时，

高分三号03星载荷新增3种工作模式：一是高分宽幅模式实现5米分辨率、120公里成像幅宽，提升合成孔径雷达成像的品质因数(幅宽/分辨率)，将实现对浩瀚洋面更大范围的数据采集；二是动目标检测和洋流测量模式增加应用功能，将实现高精度运动目标检测和海洋流场测量，大幅提升高分三号卫星海洋广域监视能力和海洋目标与环境探测能力；三是合成孔径雷达载荷单圈工作时长由30分钟增加到100分钟，可实现全球海域长时间连续监测。

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[Strangelove]

Gaofen-3 03 launched on CZ-4C from Jiuquan this morning.

 

[Andy1974]

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So, commercial sats can track stealth fighters now, will be good enough for a target track soon.

 

[SilentObserver]

So, commercial sats can track stealth fighters now, will be good enough for a target track soon.

We've seen Chinese commercial satellites like Jilin-1 track aerial objects for a few years now. 5th generation fighters aren't stealthy in the visible spectrum which these satellites use. They have been seen to track naval targets as well.

 

[ougoah]

Exactly. No idea why this is making news at SCMP lol it's half a decade old news and that's when it was revealed publicly. Wouldn't be surprised if China had the ability to use dedicated remote sensing and observation satellites in this role since 2010. The issue with the visual spectrum is that it is quite useless when there is cloud cover. It's by no means some sort of magic solution to tracking stealth aircraft. I recall reading and hearing about this method being used (the software side!) to locate and track US carrier groups back when I was a child ahem young adult lol. Back in those early 2000s days there was so much doubt and skepticism that such a concept would even be doable. Not sure why that was though since there were far more impressive software around even in China back then that resemble magic compared to this task.

 

[by78]

High-resolution images of the latest CZ-4C launch, successfully inserting a Gaofen-3 SAR observational satellite into orbit. This is the 414th flight of the Long March series.

 

[by78]

(Continued from above...)

The Gaofeng-3 SAR observational satellite can achieve a resolution of five meters and an imaging width of 120 kilometers, also capable of moving target detection and high-precision ocean current field measurement. Together with two other Gaofeng-3 satellites, the constellation enables continuous monitoring of global ocean environments, reducing the average revisit time from 0.6 days for a single satellite to 0.2 days, and the average revisit period has been shortened from 15 hours for a single satellite to 5 hours. The three satellites together can monitor nearly 20% of the world's oceans in one pass.

 

[by78]

Some patent drawings of payload packing and deployment methods. The last image shows a patent on a solar panel deployment mechanism.