The Chinese launched another three satellites from Jiuquan (map below), China, according to this article. One supposedly has a electro-optical payload, another has synthetic aperture radar (SAR), and the third has possibly a ELINT/SIGINT payload. All are suspected, according to the NASA Spaceflight.org page, to be used for maritime vehicle tracking. I don’t know, but suspect these are probably going to be close to polar and low earth orbiting (LEO) satellites. I base this guess on the Wiki of Jiuquan’s Space Launch Center history “JSLC is usually used to launch vehicles into lower and medium orbits with large orbital inclination angles…”
Jiuquan in China (image from wiki about Jiuquan province)
The Chinese just try to keep everyone else in the world off-kilter, spacewise… remember, this aside’s highlighting of the three satellites they sent up about a month ago and the interesting maneuvers they’re doing?
Related articles
- Long March 4C launches three Yaogan Weixing-17 satellites (nasaspaceflight.com)
- China “secretly” launch three satellites via Long March 4C (nasaspaceflight.com)
- Wait, what did they do??? Terminators are in orbit and Skynet is the victim. (themadspaceball.wordpress.com)
- China Launches Three ASAT Satellites (glblgeopolitics.wordpress.com)
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