Launch News Long March 4C launch with Yaogan 27, August 27, 2015

[Soheil_Esy]

2015/08/28

TAIYUAN, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- China's Yaogan-27 remote sensing satellite was sent into space on Thursday at 10:31 a.m. Beijing Time, from Taiyuan launch site in Shanxi Province, north China.

The satellite will mainly be used for experiments, land surveys, crop yield estimates and disaster prevention.

Yaogan-27 was carried by a Long March-4C rocket, the 207th mission for the Long March rocket family.

China launched the first "Yaogan" series satellite, Yaogan-1, in 2006.

China's global anti-access/area-denial (A2AD) strategy

2015-08-28

The YG-27 satellite just launched into orbit on August 27 is the 5th of the YG-8 class. Previously launched satellites are YG-8 (2009), YG-15 (2012), YG-19 (2013) and YG-22 (2014).

The YG-8 class is a family of optical military satellite dedicated to the precise identification of naval surface targets, after having first been pre-located by the five triplets military naval signals reconnaisance satellites (YG-9, YG-16, YG- 17, 20-YG and YG-25), similar to American NOSS.

YG-27 is part of China's global anti-access/area-denial (A2AD) strategy.

The Chinese anti-ship system uses the Dong Feng 21D (DF-21D) anti-ship ballistic missile (ASBM) as offensive vector.

Dongfeng-21D ASBM

2014-09-19

Dongfeng-21D delivers a 500 kilograms armour-penetrating warhead, can use external channel targeting data transmission. DF-21D circular error probability (CEP) is less than 10 meters, to ensure accurate hit of US nuclear powered aircraft carrier class targets.

DF-21D is a second-generation Chinese medium-range ground strategic missiles. The missile is an improvement of the DF-21 ballistic missile, it has two solid-fuel rocket engines, fitted on road mobile launchers and has a maximum range of 2,700 kilometers. Nuclear warheads and EMP warheads are optional upgrade versions to ensure a maximum efficiency against US carrier groups.

http://www.360doc.com/content/14/0919/16/1420784_410731101.shtml

Xianglong-2.0

2013-11-20

Xianglong-2.0 high altitude unmanned reconnaissance aircraft is another component of China's global anti-access/area-denial (A2AD) strategy. It is used to track enemy CVBGs. Its cruising speed is 750 km/h with top speed of 800 km/h. Its deployment theater covers 2000 km x 2000 km betwen the Ryukus and Okinawa islands, with an array of 4 to 6 Xianglong-2.0. Scanning coverage is said to be twice that of equivalent enemy UAVs. In this case reaction time is under an hour. Its use allows to counter expected jamming of space based assets (recon and communication satellites). In this case, Xianglong-2.0 can also provide alternative communication data link. Data collected can feed the offensive vectors such as DF-21D ASBM. Autonomy is 10 hours.

http://mil.news.sina.com.cn/2013-11-20/0951750411.html

http://mp.weixin.qq.com/s?__biz=MzA...n=f107b2a478ff547c04ed4898468ecf29&scene=0#rd

New updated Combined-Arms Saturation Attack Video

Pre launch

Launcher testing

Pre launch fourth inspection

Equipment fine tuning

Antenna testing

Payload transport

Lifting of payload

Launch

Video

http://v.qq.com/page/p/0/1/p0017ewnv01.html


Two Line Element Set (TLE):

1 40878U 15040A   15240.44921391 -.00000045  00000-0  00000+0 0  9991
2 40878 100.4963 298.7904 0007746 269.2925 090.7308 13.15940931   171

On the ground

28 August 2015

On August 27 at 10:40 am an "unidentified object" fell from the sky in Ankang City, Shaanxi Province, Xunyang Red Army town on a farmer's house. Glass windows in the vicinity were smashed, there is no personal injury reported yet.

http://news.ifeng.com/a/20150828/44538683_0.shtml

http://www.chinaspaceflight.com/satellite/Yaogan/YG-27.html

 

[Cosmic Penguin]

Well the report above did not include some of the missing important details of what the Chinese satellite does. :rofl:

If you have followed most of my Chinese spaceflight launches posts, you would know that the "YG series" are actually reconnaissance satellites - after all, what country would need 27+ big satellites for agricultural monitoring? :rofl:

Luckily for amateur watchers like me, the 1200 km high sun synchronous orbit reached, the rocket used (17th Long March 4C to fly) and even hints from an official report all unambiguously points to this as the 5th in a series of what is apparently medium resolution, large field of view optical spysats that are rumored to track certain "American big fishes that fly planes" in the Pacific and beyond. YG-27 follows the launch of YG-8 in December 2009, YG-15 in May 2012, YG-19 in November 2013 and YG-22 in October 2014.

As with many other secret Chinese launches that I have tracked, there were multiple hints from insiders and others that a launch is imminent, yet no-one has been able to pinpoint the launch site, rocket and possible payload until after liftoff yesterday at 02:31 UTC! :lol: Alas, this looks like to be the norm for Chinese spaceflight for the remainder of this year. However the last 4 months of 2015 will be very busy for the Chinese, with a dozen or more launches coming up after they went into Schrodinger's cat mode for the past month ("are they launching or not launching?" :rofl.

One of the most important of them is coming very soon (as early as within next week!!!) - the launch of the maiden flight of the Long March 6 rocket, the first of their next generation launch vehicles to reach the launch pad. Using kerosene and liquid oxygen for the lower two stages (with a hypergolic upper stage), this Vega class rocket will test out two of China's next generation mainstay rocket engines on its first flight. Unfortunately unlike its larger sibling Long March 5 and 7, development of the LM-6 is clouded in complete secrecy and chances are that we will not know until after it launches.

Watch out this space for more updates! :tiphat:

NASASpaceflight.com: Long March 4C lofts latest Yaogan Weixing satellite

Spaceflight Now: Chinese spy payload fired into orbit