Successful launch. 46th in 2020. 16th from China. ERS satellite with companion

Vyacheslav Yermolin, July 3, 2020







Mission:

Primary: Gaofen Duomo Weixing is a civilian ERS satellite. High resolution long focus camera (diameter over 1 meter) for obtaining color images with a resolution of less than a meter.



Additional: Xibaipo (BY70-2). For experiments - transmission of images and data from the Earth's orbit. Mainly used to popularize space science education for youth.








Motto:

"Another Chinese Earth Photographing Satellite"



Time and place of launch:

July 3, 2020 at 03:10 UTC. Taiyuan Cosmodrome. Launch Complex-9 (LC9).



Launch vehicle:

Chang Zheng-4B. A three-stage second-generation launch vehicle for launching medium loads into polar orbits. Carrying capacity up to 2,800 kg on SSO .



Payload:

Gaofen Duomo Weixing is a high-resolution optical ERS satellite (less than one meter). The optical system is about a meter in diameter. Multispectral images with spectral bands: navy blue, blue, green, yellow, red, etc.

Xibaipo (BY70-2) is a student cube for receiving and transmitting images and data. Training.




Orbit:

Main load: 45856 / 2020-042A, 631 X 648 km, 98.02 (Gaofen)

Additional load: 45857 / 2020-042B, 634 X 649 km, 98.01 (Xibaipo)




Interesting :

- 16th launch of China this year. Two emergency starts.

- 337th launch of the Chang Zheng series launch vehicles ("Long March").

- 36th launch of the Chang Zheng-4B launch vehicle. One emergency.

- The first launch of the ERS satellite on the new Agility platform

- The cost of launching a launch vehicle is about $ 30 million

- The cost of withdrawing 1 kg of payload to LEO is not less than $ 7,000.




Link to high quality image

Article from the NSF portal






Patches and logos of the mission



imageLegend to the "cap"



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