Institute 509 is the main force in my country’s space technology research and satellite development and production, and has developed and launched more than 150 satellites.
Today we are going to talk about: the “national team” of commercial aerospace – Institute 509 of the Eighth Academy of Aerospace Science and Technology.
1
509 institutes
Institute 509 is affiliated to the Eighth Academy of Aerospace Science and Technology. It was established in 1969 and was formerly known as Workshop 701. Institute 509 is the main force in my country’s space technology research and satellite development and production. The comprehensive performance and technical capabilities of satellites in orbit have reached the world’s advanced level.
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Talent team
As of 2024, Institute 509 has more than 1,200 employees, including more than 170 researchers, more than 400 senior engineers, nearly 70 experts at the national, provincial and ministerial levels or above, and a total of more than 30 chief commanders and chief designers of transportation projects.
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Main tasks
Institute 509 mainly carries out satellite system demonstration, system design, development and application research, undertakes satellite project management, overall design, comprehensive testing and on-orbit management tasks, and is responsible for the development of sub-systems such as structure, thermal control, measurement and control, digital transmission, and comprehensive electronics.
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aerospace products
As of March 15, 2025, 509 institutes have launched a total of 151 satellites, including 21 Fengyun meteorological satellites of the second generation four-type high and low orbit satellite network, the world’s first atmospheric environment monitoring satellite to achieve global all-day high-precision carbon dioxide detection, and my country’s Lutan-1 satellite to achieve operational surface deformation monitoring for the first time.
The 509 Institute also plays an important role in my country’s planetary exploration missions. The “Tianwen-1” orbiter of my country’s first independent Mars exploration mission and the “Xihe” solar exploration satellite are both from the 509 Institute. Its Tiandu-1 communication technology test satellite is used for advanced technical verification of my country’s “Queqiao Communication and Navigation Remote System”.
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Application cases
On April 15, 2024, the 4D Gaojing-3-01 satellite developed by 509 Research Institute was successfully launched. This satellite is my country’s first high-resolution and wide-band commercial optical remote sensing satellite.
In addition, for the first time in my country, the 4D Gaojing-2 03 and 04 satellites that have realized the autonomous and strict return orbit of a commercial satellite at the 100-meter level and the coordinated control of the sub-meter orbiting formation, and the 4D Gaojing-1 03 and 04 commercial optical satellites with the highest spatial resolution and highest geometric accuracy in China are all from 509 institutes.
6
Entering commercial aerospace
On March 15, 2025, the commercial remote sensing satellite 4D Gaojing-3-02 developed by 509 Research Institute was successfully launched. As the sister satellite of the 01 satellite, the successful launch of the 4D Gaojing-3 02 satellite marks that China’s 4D new generation commercial remote sensing satellite system has entered a new stage of performance leap.
