HELSINKI – China launched three satellites in a Long March 4B on Friday night for remote sensing, the new lobster-eye X-ray astronomy, and business data acquisition.
The Long March 4B rocket took off from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center at 11:13 pm on Eastern Friday.
China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp., the country’s leading space contractor, confirmed the success of the (Chinese) launch in one hour.
The main payload was the Ziyuan-3 (03) remote sensing satellite, developed by the Chinese Academy of Space Technology (CAST) under CASC. The satellite has a trio of cameras approximately 2.5 meters in resolution to produce geographic information products and monitoring and monitoring resources.
The new satellite will network with the Ziyuan-3 (01), (02) and Gaofen-7 satellites in orbit to provide stable satellite data sources. A fourth and final satellite of the Ziyuan-3 series will be launched this year.
Dark Matter Search, Constellation of Revelation
The two small satellites, for X-ray astronomy and business data acquisition, respectively, were developed by ASES Spaceflight Technology Co. Ltd. of Shanghai, a research institute of the Shanghai Academy of Space Flight Technology ( SAST), a major subsidiary of CASC.
The Lobster Eye X-Ray Telescope is a pioneering experiment involving the University of Hong Kong and Nanjing University. The stated purpose of the NJU-HKU No.1 satellite is to verify ultra-wide field of view images to look for dark matter signals in the X-ray energy range.
The objectives of science include the search for hypothetical particles of “sterile neutrinos”, the constituents of dark matter. Hot gas in galaxy clusters, comets in the solar system, and the interaction of the solar wind with the Earth’s magnetosphere are other areas of study for the X-ray payload of lobster eyes.
The data acquisition satellite is understood as part of Beijing Guodian Gaoke Technology Co. Ltd.’s plans to build its ‘Apocalypse’ constellation. The satellite is part of the technology verification tests for the narrowband Internet of Things constellation.
The launch was China’s 21st of 2020, including three failures. The inaugural flights of the Kuaizhou-11 and Long March 7A ended in failure. The Palapa-N1 communications satellite was lost in a Long March 3B launch.
The previous launch saw the country’s first independent interplanetary mission, Tianwen-1, successfully dispatched on a path to Mars. Since then a naming contest has been announced for the 240-kilo rover.
CASC stated in early January that it intended to launch around 40 times in 2020. Other launch service providers like Expace with its Kuaizhou solid rockets will be additional missions.