CNSA - China National Space Administration logo.
Nov. 19, 2012
Long March 2C rocket launch on Nov. 18, 2012
China launched three satellites HJ-1C, XY-1 and FN-1 from the Taiyuan Launch Center on a Long March 2C rocket on Nov. 18, 2012. HJ-1C is a part of China's Environmental Protection & Disaster Monitoring Constellation. XY-1 and FN-1 are micro-satellites testing new technologies.
Launch replay - China launches civilian radar satellite
A Long March 2C rocket was launched from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center, carrying the HJ-1C radar satellite and 3 other technological demonstration payloads into low Earth orbit at 22:53 UTC on November 18, 2012.
Huanjing-1C (HJ-1C) is a CAST968 based SAR satellite
HJ 1C (Huan Jing = Environment) is a small chinese radar Earth observation satellite. The satellite constellation is composed of a number of small satellites, the ground system, and the application system. It will provide all-weather (3 to 100m meter) imagery. The Huan Jing constellation consists of two small optical satellites, the HJ-1A and the HJ-1B, and one radar satellite, the HJ-1C. HY 1C uses a S-band SAR for imaging.
The mission of the FN (Fengniao, HummerSat) spacecrafts is to demonstrate new minisat technologies for formation flying.
FN 1A and FN 1 (DFHSat)
The HummerSat-1 mission consist of a minisatellite, called FN-1 or HummerSat-1 with a launch mass of about 160 kg, as the principal spacecraft of the formation. In addition to the minisatellite HummerSat-1, there is a microsatellite, called FN-1A ( or HummerSat-1A) with a mass of about 30 kg. FN-1A will be mounted on FN-1 at launch and will be deployed in orbit to form a two-spacecraft formation with the mother spacecraft. Both spacecraft are in contact with a crosslink for information exchange and the enactment of required orbit maneuvers. However, all ground communications with the formation is only via the mother spacecraft.
The goal of the FN-1 mission is to:
- Demonstrate the newly developed CAST-mini bus and CAST-micro bus designs in space, in particular to validate their functional capabilities and technologies introduced.
- Demonstrate the capability of close formation flying technologies such as: relative navigation, guidance and control, intersatellite crosslink, and command.
For more information about CNSA, visit: http://www.cnsa.gov.cn/n615709/cindex.html
Images, Video, Text, Credits: CNSA / CNS TV / Chinanews.com / Orbiter.ch.
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