Cosmic Penguin
Geek Penguin in GTO
The Chinese have really went crazy over the last few weeks with one launch after another and 2 completely new rockets flying their maiden flights!
And no, they certainly hasn't stopped yet - in fact they made their 6th satellite launch in just 25 days - pretty close to mind-blowing I shall say!
This launch occurred 2 days ago on October 7 at 04:13 UTC, when a Long March 2D rocket lifted off from pad LC-4/2 at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in north-western China, 23 days after another same rocket cleared the pad.
Unlike last time though, the passengers on this flight are all civilian. They have set up yet another new Chinese record too, for they are first Chinese commercial Earth observation satellite constellation to fly!
The 4 satellites of Jilin-1 are designed in one of China's best optical research institutes, Changchun Institute of Optics (CIOMP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The institute (located in Changchun, Jilin Province, one of the largest cities in north-eastern China) has been a national leader in mirror and telescope systems, and so it's no wonder that they wanted to invest in making commercial Earth observation satellites, with huge support from the local government!
Hence the 4 satellites of Jilin-1 is born. The main satellite is a conventional 400 kg class satellite that can reach 0.72 m resolution in a single band image or 2.88 m for multi-spectral images. A 2nd 55 kg satellite will perform technology demonstration of fast pointing EO satellites with 2 m resolution capability. The 3rd and 4th satellites are 95 kg class satellites that will be able to take 4K videos of the Earth down to 1 meter resolution.
CIOMP is spinning off a new company to operate these satellites. And they certainly are dreaming big - they want to get 60 satellites to orbit by 2020 and 137 by 2030 (!), which is approaching the scale Skybox and Planet Labs are trying to do. Since I don't know how big the satellite imagery market is in China, this sounds like a very brave thing to do!
The Chinese are still not going to stop here though - their next launch is around a week from now. Wait till yet another of my reports come through!
NASASpaceflight.com: China launches Jilin-1 mission via Long March 2D
Spaceflight Now: Quartet of Earth imaging satellites launched from China
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgPgCr-6-nM"]ä¸
国航天 - 酒泉：“�林一��组星�射�功 - YouTube[/ame]
And no, they certainly hasn't stopped yet - in fact they made their 6th satellite launch in just 25 days - pretty close to mind-blowing I shall say!
This launch occurred 2 days ago on October 7 at 04:13 UTC, when a Long March 2D rocket lifted off from pad LC-4/2 at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in north-western China, 23 days after another same rocket cleared the pad.
Unlike last time though, the passengers on this flight are all civilian. They have set up yet another new Chinese record too, for they are first Chinese commercial Earth observation satellite constellation to fly!
The 4 satellites of Jilin-1 are designed in one of China's best optical research institutes, Changchun Institute of Optics (CIOMP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The institute (located in Changchun, Jilin Province, one of the largest cities in north-eastern China) has been a national leader in mirror and telescope systems, and so it's no wonder that they wanted to invest in making commercial Earth observation satellites, with huge support from the local government!
Hence the 4 satellites of Jilin-1 is born. The main satellite is a conventional 400 kg class satellite that can reach 0.72 m resolution in a single band image or 2.88 m for multi-spectral images. A 2nd 55 kg satellite will perform technology demonstration of fast pointing EO satellites with 2 m resolution capability. The 3rd and 4th satellites are 95 kg class satellites that will be able to take 4K videos of the Earth down to 1 meter resolution.
CIOMP is spinning off a new company to operate these satellites. And they certainly are dreaming big - they want to get 60 satellites to orbit by 2020 and 137 by 2030 (!), which is approaching the scale Skybox and Planet Labs are trying to do. Since I don't know how big the satellite imagery market is in China, this sounds like a very brave thing to do!
The Chinese are still not going to stop here though - their next launch is around a week from now. Wait till yet another of my reports come through!
NASASpaceflight.com: China launches Jilin-1 mission via Long March 2D
Spaceflight Now: Quartet of Earth imaging satellites launched from China
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgPgCr-6-nM"]ä¸
国航天 - 酒泉：“�林一��组星�射�功 - YouTube[/ame]
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