Tag: China
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How Onboard AI Can Cut Hours from Wildfire Alerts
When a wildfire starts, the earliest response window can make an enormous difference. A small fire may still be manageable with limited resources; once wind drives it across the landscape, containment becomes harder, more dangerous and more expensive. That raises a practical question: with satellites orbiting Earth every day, why have satellite-based alerts sometimes taken…
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How Satellite Data and AI Are Transforming Crop Insurance in China
What does computing in space actually change for people on the ground? Crop insurance offers a practical starting point. Satellite imagery, artificial intelligence and digital field records are changing how insurers identify farmland, assess damage and help farmers reduce losses. The value becomes clearer when individual projects are examined in detail: where the data comes…
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How Satellite Data Supports Agricultural Insurance and Lending
Satellite images, analytical findings and monitoring indicators are the raw materials of a growing data economy. But data does not automatically generate revenue. Its commercial value depends on whether people can establish rights to it, assess its usefulness and turn it into something customers will pay for. That raises a practical question: how does a…
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U.S. Intelligence Warns China Could Deploy Orbital Directed-Energy Weapons by Late This Decade
The assessment identifies two distinct threats to systems operating in space. One centers on China’s potential to deploy directed-energy weapons in orbit within the current decade. The other concerns Russia’s ongoing development of counterspace capabilities aimed at satellites. According to the assessment, China’s timeline for fielding space-based directed-energy weapons extends to the end of the…
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Long March 8A Launches 28th Group of Low-Earth-Orbit Internet Satellites (Video)
A Long March 8A carrier rocket lifted off from the Hainan Commercial Space Launch Site at 10:03 a.m. Beijing Time on Oct. 25, 2026, placing China’s 28th group of low-Earth-orbit internet satellites into their designated orbit. The mission continued the country’s accelerated satellite-internet deployment campaign. The spacecraft were developed by the China Academy of Space…
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Long March 4B Launches Yaogan-53 Satellites 07–09 and Yaogan-56 Satellites 19–21
China launched six remote-sensing satellites aboard a Long March 4B rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center at 3:25 a.m. Beijing Time on October 24, 2026. The rocket placed Yaogan-53 satellites 07, 08 and 09 and Yaogan-56 satellites 19, 20 and 21 into their planned orbits. The payload comprised two separately designated groups of three…
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China Launches Yaogan-50 03 Remote-Sensing Satellite on Long March 6A (Video)
China launched the Yaogan-50 03 remote-sensing satellite aboard a Long March 6A rocket from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center at 6:15 p.m. Beijing Time on Oct. 23, 2026. The spacecraft entered its planned orbit, completing the 672nd launch of China’s Long March rocket family. Chinese authorities said Yaogan-50 03 will primarily support land surveys, crop…
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Hyperspectral Satellites: The Race Beyond More Bands
Two satellite systems observe the same open-pit mine and offer different answers. The multispectral satellite says: “This area appears reddish. Iron oxides may be present.” It infers material properties from differences across a handful of broad spectral bands. The hyperspectral satellite can go further: “The spectral signatures indicate hematite and goethite, with an associated alteration…
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China Launches First Wuyang Satellite for Low-Latitude Earth Observation
China launched Xiguang-4 01, also known as Wuyang Constellation Pathfinder A, on October 21, beginning in-orbit validation of a remote-sensing network designed to provide more frequent observations of low- and middle-latitude regions. The satellite lifted off at 11:39 a.m. Beijing time aboard Galactic Energy’s Ceres-1S Y8 rocket from the Dongfang Hangtiangang launch vessel in waters…
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China’s Ceres-1S Launches First Wuyang Constellation Satellite From Sea (Video)
China launched the first satellite of its domestically developed Wuyang low-inclination remote-sensing constellation at 11:39 a.m. Beijing time on Oct. 21, 2026. The spacecraft, Xiguang-4 01, lifted off aboard a Ceres-1S Y8 rocket from a mobile platform in the Yellow Sea off Rizhao, Shandong province, and entered a 541-kilometer low Earth orbit. The mission marks…