Early this morning at 2:35 a.m. Beijing time, the China National Space Administration (CNSA) launched Fengyun-3D, the latest satellite in the country’s Fengyun series.
The launch took place at Taiyuan Satellite Launch Centre, China’s second oldest launch site opened in 1968. The satellite was delivered to orbit by the Long March-4C rocket, a 3-stage rocket that can take up to 4,200kg to Low Earth Orbit (LEO). As a secondary payload, the Long March-4C took along a 45-kg microsatellite known as HEAD-1. This was the Long March-4C’s first launch since 2016, when it failed to insert the Gaofen 10 satellite into the correct orbit.
Operated by China’s National Satellite Meteorological Center (NSMC), Fengyun-3D is the fourth satellite in the Fengyun-3 series and weighs approximately 2450kg. Fengyuns-3A, -3B, and -3C were launched in 2008, 2010, and 2013 respectively. Like the other Fengyun 3 satellites, the Fengyun-3D was developed by the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology (SAST), and carries a Medium Resolution Spectral Imager-2 (MERSI-2), an Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (ASI), microwave sounders and radiation imagers, and a Greenhouse gases Monitoring Instrument (GAMI).
This is the first weather satellite China has launched in 2017. The last launch from the Fengyun series occurred in December 2016, of the Fengyun-4A satellite that joined the Fengyun-2 series in the Geostationary Orbit (GEO). Currently, there are 4 Fengyun series of satellites; Fengyun-1C, the third of the Fengyun-1 series, was destroyed in China’s anti-satellite missile test in 2007.
The NSMC makes its Fengyun data publicly available, providing near real-time imagery and data on its website. It also offers a Direct Broadcast Service for anyone able to receive stipulated frequencies from the Fengyun satellites.
