{"id":15817,"date":"2015-12-29T18:39:23","date_gmt":"2015-12-29T10:39:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/china-launches-eagle-eyed-satellite-to-stare-down-at-earth\/"},"modified":"2015-12-29T18:39:23","modified_gmt":"2015-12-29T10:39:23","slug":"china-launches-eagle-eyed-satellite-to-stare-down-at-earth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/china-launches-eagle-eyed-satellite-to-stare-down-at-earth\/","title":{"rendered":"China launches eagle-eyed satellite to stare down at Earth"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"678\" height=\"381\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/g_1ZpHTQYUM?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>China launched a high-altitude satellite Monday fitted with a powerful telescope to collect nearly continuous imagery of the Asia-Pacific from geostationary orbit, an apparently unique capability that could help track foreign naval activity, according to Chinese news reports.<\/p>\n<p>The Gaofen 4 spacecraft lifted off at 1604 GMT (11:04 a.m. EST) Monday from the Xichang launch base in southwest China\u2019s Sichuan province, according to the official Xinhua news agency.<\/p>\n<p>The 4.6-metric ton (10,141-pound) satellite flew into orbit on top of a Long March 3B rocket, reaching an oval-shaped transfer orbit about a half-hour after liftoff. U.S. military tracking data show the Gaofen 4 satellite in an orbit with a perigee, or low point, of about 200 kilometers (124 miles) and an apogee, or high point, of about 35,800 kilometers (22,245 miles), with a path inclined 23 degrees to the equator.<\/p>\n<p>Gaofen 4 will use an on-board engine to reach a circular orbit nearly 36,000 kilometers (22,300 miles) above the equator in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n<p>The satellite will enter service over the Asia-Pacific, with its imaging telescope able to observe a swath of the planet from the Persian Gulf to Australia, centered on China and Southeast Asia, according to information released by China.<\/p>\n<p>No other country has disclosed the existence of such sharp-eyed geostationary satellites, but Chinese state-run media outlets have publicly revealed several of the newly-launched observatory\u2019s characteristics.<\/p>\n<p>Gaofen 4\u2019s staring imager can spot objects as small as 50 meters (164 feet), a resolution that allows the satellite to see an oil tanker steaming across the ocean, according to Li Guo, Gaofen 4\u2019s chief designer, in a story published by Xinhua.<\/p>\n<p>That is a significant improvement over the image resolution from conventional weather satellites.<\/p>\n<p>The state-run China Youth Daily newspaper reported earlier this year the Gaofen 4 satellite\u2019s purpose is also to hunt for U.S. aircraft carriers operating near China.<\/p>\n<p>At night, an infrared camera aboard Gaofen 4 can capture less detailed imagery with a resolution of about 400 meters, or 1,300 feet.<\/p>\n<p>The State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense, or SASTIND, oversees development of the Gaofen series of satellites. Gaofen 4 is the program\u2019s first spacecraft in geostationary orbit, coming after launches of imaging satellites into low Earth orbit in recent years.<\/p>\n<p>Gaofen 4 is designed for an eight-year lifetime.<\/p>\n<p>Other missions for the satellite include disaster prevention and relief, surveillance of global disasters and forest disasters, and weather forecasting, according to Xinhua.<\/p>\n<p>The launch of Gaofen 4 marked China\u2019s 19th space launch of the year.<\/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>China launched a high-altitude satellite Monday fitted with a powerful telescope to collect nearly continuous imagery of the Asia-Pacific from geostationary orbit, an apparently unique capability that could help track foreign naval activity, according to Chinese news reports. The Gaofen 4 spacecraft lifted off at 1604 GMT (11:04 a.m. EST) Monday from the Xichang launch [&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":[135,159,1793,3835,205,1888,1741],"class_list":["post-15817","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-china","tag-earth-observation","tag-gaofen","tag-gaofen-4","tag-long-march","tag-long-march-3b","tag-xichang"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15817"}],"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=15817"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15817\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}