SSTW? Credit - via Chen Lan

Mysterious early Chinese satellite, orbited by the cancelled FB-1 launch vehicle. Western opinion was that it was a military photo surveillance satellite, probably using television or radio transmission of scanned film images. Based on American and Soviet experiences with similar systems in the 1960's, the results were probably disappointing.

Typical orbit: 190 x 995 km, 69 deg inclinaton. Mass: 1,100 kg (2,400 lb). Associated Launch Vehicle: FB-1.

• 1973 September 18 - JSSW 1 - Launch Site: Jiuquan. Launch Vehicle: FB-1. FAILURE: Failure.

• 1974 July 14 - JSSW 2 - Launch Site: Jiuquan. Launch Vehicle: FB-1. FAILURE: Vehicle lost attitude stability and destroyed by range safety.

• 1975 December 16 - JSSW 4 - Launch Site: Jiuquan. Launch Vehicle: FB-1. Mass: 1,110 kg (2,440 lb). Perigee: 186 km (115 mi). Apogee: 387 km (240 mi). Inclination: 69.00 deg. Period: 90.30 min.

  Photo surveillance; radio transmission.

• 1975 July 26 - JSSW 3 - Launch Site: Jiuquan. Launch Vehicle: FB-1. Mass: 1,107 kg (2,440 lb). Perigee: 190 km (110 mi). Apogee: 455 km (282 mi). Inclination: 69.00 deg. Period: 90.90 min.

  Photo surveillance; radio transmission.

• 1976 August 30 - JSSW 5 - Launch Site: Jiuquan. Launch Vehicle: FB-1. Mass: 1,108 kg (2,442 lb). Perigee: 195 km (121 mi). Apogee: 2,145 km (1,332 mi). Inclination: 69.20 deg. Period: 108.80 min.

• 1976 November 10 - JSSW 6 - Launch Site: Jiuquan. Launch Vehicle: FB-1. FAILURE: Failure.

• McDowell, Jonathan, Jonathan's Space Home Page, Harvard University, 1997-present. Jonathan McDowell's complete on-line listing of all objects orbited and over 20,000 rocket launches Accessed at: http://www.planet4589.org/jsr.html.

• Krebs, Gunter, Gunter's Space Page, University of Frankfurt, 1996. Accessed at: http://www.skyrocket.de/space.

• JPL Mission and Spacecraft Library, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 1997. Accessed at: http://msl.jpl.nasa.gov/home.html.

• McDowell, Jonathan, Launch Log, October 1998. Jonathan McDowell's complete on-line listing of all objects orbited since Sputnik. Accessed at: http://hea-www.harvard.edu/~jcm/space/log/launch.html.

• Chen Lan, Dragon in Space, . The best source anywhere for information on current news regarding the Chinese space program. Accessed at: http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Launchpad/1921/.

• USAF Satellite Database, USAF Institute of Technology, 1995. Accessed at: ftp://archive.afit.af.mil/pub/space/.