China launched a new remote sensing satellite on December 27 from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. The launch of Yaogan Weixing-33(R) took place at 15:44 UTC from the LC43\/94 launch complex using the Long March-4C (Y35) \u2013 Chang Zheng-4C \u2013 rocket.<\/p>\n
Weather conditions at launch were extremely cold, bringing great challenges to the launch preparations. The launch team reviewed various winter launch safeguard measures for this mission, covering ground equipment operation, propellant refueling, payloads environmental protection systems, etc.<\/p>\n
As usual, Chinese media refers to the new satellite as a new remote sensing bird that will be used mainly for scientific experiment research, marine and land resource surveys, and other tasks. But as was the case in the last launches of the Yaogan Weixing series, it is believed this class of satellites is used for military purposes.<\/p>\n
China named the satellite \u2018Yaogan Weixing-33\u2019, but on May 22, 2019, another Yaogan Weixing-33 was lost on a Long March-4C launch failure that occurred a few minutes after launch from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center.<\/p>\n
The lost Yaogan-33 was likely the second satellite of the successor series to the Yaogan Weixing-1 (Jianbing-5) class space-based synthetic aperture radar (SAR) system. The first satellite of this second generation SAR was Yaogan-29, launched on November 26, 2015.<\/p>\n
Another small satellite, Weina Jishu Shiyan, was also launched on this mission. The small satellite will be used for scientific research, according to the Chinese media.<\/p>\n
Both satellites have become the final satellites to be orbited by China in 2020 and the last satellites on the nation\u2019s 13th Five-Year Plan.<\/p>\n
With its main commonality matched to the Long March-4B, the Long March-4C first stage has a 24.65-meter length with a 3.35-meter diameter, consuming 183,340 kg of N2O4\/UDMH (gross mass of first stage is 193.330 kg).<\/p>\n
The vehicle is equipped with a YF-21B engine capable of a ground thrust of 2,971 kN and a ground specific impulse of 2,550 Ns\/kg. The second stage has a 10.40-meter length with a 3.35-meter diameter and 38,326 kg, consuming 35,374 kg of N2O4\/UDMH.<\/p>\n
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