{"id":11838,"date":"2021-02-27T19:00:51","date_gmt":"2021-02-27T11:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/another-trio-of-chinese-military-satellites-successfully-deployed\/"},"modified":"2021-02-27T19:00:51","modified_gmt":"2021-02-27T11:00:51","slug":"another-trio-of-chinese-military-satellites-successfully-deployed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/another-trio-of-chinese-military-satellites-successfully-deployed\/","title":{"rendered":"Another trio of Chinese military satellites successfully deployed"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_50363\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-50363\" style=\"width: 900px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-50363\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/139763224_16141526808081n.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"900\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/139763224_16141526808081n.jpg 900w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/139763224_16141526808081n-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/139763224_16141526808081n-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/139763224_16141526808081n-678x452.jpg 678w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-50363\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A Long March 4C rocket takes off Feb. 24 with another trio of Yaogan 31 military satellites. Credit: Xinhua<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Weeks after the launch of an earlier trio of Chinese military satellites, another spacecraft triplet successfully took off Feb. 24 aboard a Long March 4C rocket on a clandestine mission that analysts believe may involve spying on foreign naval forces.<\/p>\n<p>The Yaogan 31 triplet launched at 0222 GMT on Feb. 24 (9:22 p.m. EST on Feb. 23) from the Jiuquan space base on the Gobi Desert of northwestern China. Liftoff occurred at 10:22 a.m. Beijing time.<\/p>\n<p>Chinese officials declared the launch a success, and U.S. military tracking data indicated the three-stage, liquid-fueled Long March 4C rocket delivered the Yaogan 31 satellites to an orbit&nbsp;680 miles (1,100 kilometers) in altitude, with an inclination of 63.4 degrees to the equator.<\/p>\n<p>China\u2019s state-run Xinhua news agency reported the Yaogan 31 satellites \u201cwill be used for electromagnetic environment surveys and other related technology tests.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Yaogan name is used for Chinese military satellites. Yaogan satellites carry high-resolution optical, radar, and signals intelligence instruments, collecting information for analysis by Chinese military and intelligence agencies.<\/p>\n<p>The satellite triplet launched Feb. 24 is the third trio of Yaogan 31-type satellites China has launched, following Long March 4C flights in April 2018 and on Jan. 29. Independent analysts believe the Yaogan 31 satellites have a maritime reconnaissance mission&nbsp;helping Chinese military authorities track foreign naval movements.<\/p>\n<p>Before 2018, China launched five Long March 4C missions with Yaogan triplets into the same 680-mile-high orbit used by the Yaogan 31 series. Those flights may have deployed earlier generations of maritime surveillance satellites.<\/p>\n<p>The launch of three more Yaogan 31 satellites Feb. 24 marked China\u2019s fifth orbital launch attempt of 2021. Four of those missions were successful.<\/p>\n<p>China plans more than 40 space launches this year, including a Long March 5B rocket flight to loft the core module of a Chinese space station, followed by cargo and crew missions to the nascent orbital complex.<\/p>\n<p><b><i>Email the author.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Long March 4C rocket takes off Feb. 24 with another trio of Yaogan 31 military satellites. Credit: Xinhua Weeks after the launch of an earlier trio of Chinese military satellites, another spacecraft triplet successfully took off Feb. 24 aboard a Long March 4C rocket on a clandestine mission that analysts believe may involve spying [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[135,1578,25,205,1746,257,1742,1869],"class_list":["post-11838","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-china","tag-jiuquan","tag-launch","tag-long-march","tag-long-march-4c","tag-military-space","tag-yaogan","tag-yaogan-31"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11838"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11838"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11838\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}