Cosmic Penguin
Geek Penguin in GTO
China has launched satellites for the second time in less than 5 days - with the payloads even more mysterious than the one on the last launch! With rumors of this being "the most ambitious orbital launch ever by the Chinese" since early this year, yet nothing has been heard of for months, it seems that the satellites might be some new spying birds from the ever catching up Chinese.
When the Long March 4C finally launched at 23:37 UTC yesterday from Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in northern China, however, it turned out that "ambitious" means something else. The rocket sent three technological demonstration satellites: SJ-15, SY-7 and CX-3 into a sun-synchronous orbit at 675 km altitude, and it turns out that one of them will test a robotic arm in space, while another will look for and track orbital debris.
Sounds rather peaceful, right? (especially as the future Chinese space station will have 2 robotic arms) Well not quite - the little information that has been released seems to point to some other mission in orbit. One possibly is that the robotic arm satellite may serve as an on-orbit inspector for satellites of other countries that the Chinese would like to "modify" into space debris. :rofl: It seems that SY-7 is the robotic arm satellite, CX-3 is the target, and SJ-15 tracks both and other objects in orbit. Maybe the trio is playing the classic Looney Tunes scene in space, with Sylvester chasing after and grabbing Tweety and Granny trying to track what the two are playing! :lol:
NASASpaceflight.com: China “secretly” launch three satellites via Long March 4C
When the Long March 4C finally launched at 23:37 UTC yesterday from Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in northern China, however, it turned out that "ambitious" means something else. The rocket sent three technological demonstration satellites: SJ-15, SY-7 and CX-3 into a sun-synchronous orbit at 675 km altitude, and it turns out that one of them will test a robotic arm in space, while another will look for and track orbital debris.
Sounds rather peaceful, right? (especially as the future Chinese space station will have 2 robotic arms) Well not quite - the little information that has been released seems to point to some other mission in orbit. One possibly is that the robotic arm satellite may serve as an on-orbit inspector for satellites of other countries that the Chinese would like to "modify" into space debris. :rofl: It seems that SY-7 is the robotic arm satellite, CX-3 is the target, and SJ-15 tracks both and other objects in orbit. Maybe the trio is playing the classic Looney Tunes scene in space, with Sylvester chasing after and grabbing Tweety and Granny trying to track what the two are playing! :lol:
NASASpaceflight.com: China “secretly” launch three satellites via Long March 4C
