Since the 1980s, the “Ziyu” series of satellites have been successively launched: “Ziyu-1”, “Ziyu-2” and “Ziyu-3”.
1. “Resource No. 1” series
The “Resource One” series has gradually formed two core technical routes during the development process, namely the CBERS series jointly developed by China and Brazil and the ZY1 Business Star series independently developed in China. The CBERS series includes 01, 02, 02B, 04, 04A and other stars, and the ZY1 business star series includes 02C, 02D, 02E, etc.
(1) CBERS series
China-Brazil Earth Resources Satellite 01 (CBERS-01) was launched on October 14, 1999 and has been retired. It is equipped with a 5-band CCD camera, a 4-band infrared multispectral scanner, and a 2-band wide-field imager.
China-Brazil Earth Resources Satellite 01 (CBERS-02) was launched on October 21, 2003 and has been retired. It is equipped with a 5-band CCD camera, a 4-band infrared multispectral scanner, and a 2-band wide-field imager.
The China-Brazil Earth Resources Satellite 01 (CBERS-02B) was launched on September 21, 2007 and has been retired. It is equipped with a 2.36m high-resolution camera for the first time and has full-color and multi-spectral simultaneous imaging capabilities.
China-Brazil Earth Resources Satellite 04 (CBERS-04) was jointly developed by the Fifth Academy of Aerospace Science and Technology and the Brazilian Institute of Space Research. It was launched from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center on December 7, 2014 by the Long March 4B carrier rocket, with an orbital altitude of 773 km × 773 km, with an orbital inclination of 98.55° and a return period of 26 days. It is equipped with a 5m panchromatic camera, a 10m multispectral camera, a 20m multispectral camera, a 40m/80m infrared camera, and a 67m wide-field imager.
China-Brazil Earth Resources Satellite 04 (CBERS-04A) was launched from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center on December 20, 2019 by the Long March 4B carrier rocket, with an orbital altitude of 626 km × 622 km and an orbital inclination of 97.8°. The main payload carried on the satellite is a new generation payload developed by the 508th Institute of the Fifth Academy – a wide-angle panchromatic multispectral camera, which is equipped with 5 spectral bands. Compared with the “Ziyu-1” 04 satellite, an additional blue spectrum band is added, allowing the camera to increase the functions of water body monitoring and forestry ecological monitoring, and expand the application field. In addition, the camera adopts a low-distortion three-reflection off-axis optical system, which improves the modulation transfer function of the camera, increases the coverage width of the camera, greatly reduces the distortion index of the camera image, and at the same time reduces the quality of the camera.
(2) ZY1 business star series
“Ziyu-1” 02C satellite is my country’s first operational satellite for land and resources census, with a mass of 2100 kg. It was developed by the Fifth Academy of Aerospace Science and Technology. It was launched from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center LC-9 on December 22, 2011 by the Long March 4B carrier rocket. The orbital altitude is 773 km × 774 km, with an orbital inclination of 98.56° and a return period of 55 days. It is equipped with a 5m multispectral camera, a 2.36m panchromatic high-resolution camera, a 10mPMS multispectral camera, and a width of 54km.
The “Ziyu-1” 02D satellite is my country’s first civilian hyperspectral operational satellite. It was launched from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center LC-9 on September 12, 2019 by the Long March 4B carrier rocket. It has an orbital altitude of 775 km × 772 km and an orbital inclination of 98.4°. It is equipped with a 9-band multispectral camera and a 166-band hyperspectral camera.
The “Ziyu-1” 02E satellite was launched from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center LC-9 on December 26, 2021 by a Long March 4C carrier rocket. The orbital altitude is 774 km × 773 km, and the orbital inclination is 98.5°. The 02D and 02E satellites are hyperspectral operational satellites deployed and constructed in the space-based planning. They belong to the medium-resolution earth observation constellation responsible for the Ministry of Natural Resources.
2. “Resource No. 2” series
The “Ziyu-2” satellite is my country’s new generation of transmission remote sensing satellites. The series includes 01, 02, and 03 satellites and has successfully implemented a Samsung network. It is mainly used in land and resources exploration, environmental monitoring and protection, urban planning and other fields. So far, this series of satellites has been retired.
The “Ziyu-2” 01 satellite was launched on September 1, 2000. It is equipped with infrared and visible light cameras, multi-spectral scanners, microwave radiometers, multi-function radars, gravity and magnetic remote sensing, etc.
The “Ziyu-2” 02 satellite was launched on October 27, 2002. It is equipped with infrared and visible light cameras, multi-spectral scanners, microwave radiometers, multi-function radars, gravity and magnetic remote sensing, etc.
The “Ziyu-2” 03 satellite was launched on November 6, 2004. It is equipped with infrared and visible light cameras, multi-spectral scanners, microwave radiometers, multi-function radars, gravity and magnetic remote sensing, etc.
3. “Resource No. 3” series
ZY-3 satellite includes 01, 02, 03 and 04 satellites. Satellite 01 was launched on January 9, 2012. It is my country’s first civilian high-resolution optical transmission stereo mapping satellite. The satellite is equipped with front, rear, front-view cameras and multi-spectral cameras to provide long-term, continuous, stable and rapid acquisition of 2.1 m high-resolution stereo images and 6 m multi-spectral images covering the entire country. Satellite 02 was successfully launched on May 30, 2016, and operates in a network with Satellite 01, jointly serving the fields of land and resources survey and monitoring, disaster prevention and reduction, agriculture, forestry and water conservancy, ecological environment, urban planning and construction, etc. Satellite 03 was successfully launched on July 25, 2020. It is equipped with payloads such as a three-line array stereo mapping camera, a multispectral camera, and a laser altimeter. The resolution of the front-facing panchromatic camera is 2.1 meters, the resolution of the front- and rear-facing cameras is better than 2.7 meters, and the resolution of the multispectral camera is better than 6 meters. Satellite 04 was successfully launched on December 16, 2025, replacing the Ziyu-3 Satellite 01, returning the Ziyu-3 constellation to the state of Samsung on-orbit network operation, ensuring the continuity of the production of 1:50,000 basic geographic information products.
