CZ-4A

The CZ-4B introduced in 1999 was an improved model of the CZ-4B with an enhanced third stage and fairing. It measured 44.1 metres in length with a first stage thrust of 300 tonnes.

3 stage vehicle consisting of 1 x CZ-4 stage 1 + 1 x CZ-4 stage 2 + 1 x CZ-4B stage 3

Manufacturer: Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology. Launches: 10. Success Rate: 100.00%. First Launch Date: 1999-05-10. Last Launch Date: 2006-10-23. Launch data is: continuing. LEO Payload: 2,800 kg (6,100 lb). Payload: 2,800 kg (6,100 lb). to a: Sun synchronous, 900 km orbital trajectory. Apogee: 1,000 km (600 mi). Associated Spacecraft: FY-1, HY-1, SACI, SJ, ZY. Liftoff Thrust: 2,960.000 kN (665,430 lbf). Total Mass: 249,200 kg (549,300 lb). Core Diameter: 3.35 m (10.99 ft). Total Length: 45.80 m (150.20 ft). Launch Price $: 35.000 million. in: 1999 price dollars.

1999 May 10 - 01:33 GMT - Launch Site: Taiyuan. Launch Complex: LC1. Launch Pad: LC1. Launch Vehicle: CZ-4B. Model: Chang Zheng 4B. LV Configuration: Chang Zheng 4B CZ4B-1 (56).

• FY-1C Nation: China. Payload: Feng Yun 1C. Class: Earth. Type: Weather. Spacecraft: FY-1. Agency: CASC. Manufacturer: Shanghai Inst. of Satellite Engineering. Perigee: 847 km (526 mi). Apogee: 869 km (539 mi). Inclination: 98.80 deg. COSPAR: 1999-025A. USAF Sat Cat: 25730. Operational weather satellite. First launch of stretched CZ-4B booster. After retirement the satellite was destroyed in the first test of the Chinese ASAT weapon on 11 January 2007.

• SJ-5 Nation: China. Payload: Shi Jian 5. Class: Earth. Type: Magnetosphere. Spacecraft: SJ. Agency: CASC. Manufacturer: Shanghai Inst. of Satellite Engineering. Perigee: 843 km (523 mi). Apogee: 869 km (539 mi). Inclination: 98.80 deg. COSPAR: 1999-025B. USAF Sat Cat: 25731. Research satellite carried as a secondary payload to study the radiation belts.

• ZY-1 Nation: China. Payload: Zi Yuan 1. Mass: 1,540 kg (3,390 lb). Class: Earth. Type: Landsat. Spacecraft: ZY. Agency: CAST/INP. Manufacturer: China Acad. Space Tech., Beijing. Perigee: 773 km (480 mi). Apogee: 774 km (480 mi). Inclination: 98.60 deg. COSPAR: 1999-057A. USAF Sat Cat: 25940. China-Brazil Earth Resources Satellite. China's first earth resources satellite, known as ZY-1, weighed 1,540 kilograms. Chief designer was Chen Yiyuan. The satellite, a joint project of China and Brazil, was designed to gather information on the environment, agriculture and urban planning through remote sensing images and data transmitted to China, Brazil and other countries. Planned lifetime was two years. The satellite circled the Earth 14 times a day and the groundtrack repeated after 26 days. By 23 February 2000 it had taken more than 20,000 high quality images. It was formally handed over for operational use on March 2 2000. The High Resolution CCD Camera had a resolution of 20 meters in the visible spectrum. The camera could point up to 32 degrees to either side of vertical, imaging the earth's surface stereoscopically. After 177 days the Wide Field Imager failed in early May 2000. Other devices, including the high resolution CCD camera, continue to work normally.

• SACI 1 Nation: Brazil. Class: Technology. Spacecraft: SACI. Agency: INPE. Manufacturer: Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espacias, Sao Jose dos Campos. Perigee: 733 km (455 mi). Apogee: 744 km (462 mi). Inclination: 98.60 deg. COSPAR: 1999-057B. USAF Sat Cat: 25941. INPE experimental scientific satellite with a magnetometer, particle detectors and an atmospheric experiment. INPE reportedly lost contact with the satellite in mid-October.

• ZY-2 Nation: China. Payload: Zi Yuan 2. Class: Surveillance. Type: Military. Spacecraft: ZY. Agency: CAST. Manufacturer: China Acad. Space Tech., Beijing. Perigee: 489 km (304 mi). Apogee: 501 km (311 mi). Inclination: 97.41 deg. Period: 94.43 min. COSPAR: 2000-050A. USAF Sat Cat: 26481. The ZY-2 (Ziyuan-2 ('Resource-2'), while disguised as a civilian earth monitoring system, was actually code-named Jianbing-3 and was China's first high-resolution military imaging satellite. The cover story of the official Xinhua news agency was that the civilian remote sensing system would be used primarily in territorial surveying, city planning, crop yield assessment, disaster monitoring and space science experimentation. However the satellite was placed at a much lower altitude than the ZY-1 satellite and US intelligence sources indicated that it was a photo-reconnaissance satellite for exclusively military purposes, such as targeting missiles at US and Taiwanese forces. The new satellite was believed to employ digital-imaging technology and to have a resolution of 2 m or less. The satellite was designed and built by the Chinese Academy of Space Technology and was developed indigenously. It was said to be more advanced than earlier sensing satellites and was expected to have an orbital life of two years. The camera provided more than three times the resolution of the ZY-1 earth resources satellite. The Zi Yuan 2 satellite may have used the CBERS Sino-Brazilian bus of the earlier ZY-1. However it was also said to be of new design and demonstrated the capability to maneuver in orbit, adjusting its orbit after launch. In October 2000 Chinese scientists denied that the ZY-2 satellite had a military mission. It was said to be a remote-sensing satellite equipped with CCD cameras and an infrared multispectral scanner that could only identify objects on the ground with a resolution of several dozen meters to 1 km.References: 4, 552, 554.

• Hai Yang 1 Nation: China. Mass: 360 kg (790 lb). Class: Earth. Type: Resource. Spacecraft: HY-1. Agency: CASC. Perigee: 793 km (492 mi). Apogee: 799 km (496 mi). Inclination: 98.80 deg. COSPAR: 2002-024A. USAF Sat Cat: 27430. The HY-1 (Haiyang-1) marine observation satellite separated shortly after the FY-1D. The 360 kg HY-1 was based on the SJ-5 bus and carried an IR radiometer and CCD imager for oceanographic studies. Between May 21 and May 26, HY-1 lowered its orbit to 793 x 799 km using on-board propulsion.References: 4, 552, 554.

• Feng Yun 1D Nation: China. Mass: 960 kg (2,110 lb). Class: Earth. Type: Weather. Spacecraft: FY-1. Agency: CASC. Perigee: 851 km (528 mi). Apogee: 871 km (541 mi). Inclination: 98.80 deg. COSPAR: 2002-024B. USAF Sat Cat: 27431. The second stage separated six minutes after launch, putting the stack on a suborbital trajectory. After a brief coast up to 860 km the third stage fired at around 0200 UTC to circularize the orbit. FY-1D, a 950 kg weather satellite with a 10-channel radiometer, separated from the stack followed by a small adapter. The final stage was left in a slightly lower 812 x 883 km orbit.References: 4, 552, 554.

• ZY-2 Nation: China. Payload: Zi Yuan 2-2. Class: Surveillance. Type: Military. Spacecraft: ZY. Agency: Chinese Academy of Space Technology. Perigee: 470 km (290 mi). Apogee: 483 km (300 mi). Inclination: 97.40 deg. Period: 94.10 min. COSPAR: 2002-049A. USAF Sat Cat: 27550. JB-3 2 was nominally a Chinese (PRC) remote sensing satellite, although US intelligence sources indicated it had primarily an intelligence imaging mission. JB-3 2 was the name adopted by the USSPACECOM. Most news reports from China and elsewhere use different names: ZY-2B (acronym for ZiYuan-2B, translated as Resource-2B), and Zhong Guo Zi Yuan Er Hao, translated as China Resource 2. No information was available on the instruments onboard the JB-3 2, but officially it was intended 'for territorial survey, environment monitoring and protection, urban planning, crop yield assessment, disaster monitoring, and space scientific experiments'. The initial orbital parameters of this sun-synchronous satellite were period 94.1 min, apogee 483 km, perigee 470 km, and inclination 97.4°.References: 4, 552, 554.

• ZY-1-2 (CBERS-2) Nation: China. Payload: Zi Yuan 1B. Mass: 1,500 kg (3,300 lb). Class: Earth. Type: Landsat. Spacecraft: ZY. Agency: China Aerospace Corp. (China), INPE (Brazil). Perigee: 731 km (454 mi). Apogee: 750 km (460 mi). Inclination: 98.50 deg. Period: 99.60 min. COSPAR: 2003-049A. USAF Sat Cat: 28057. Delayed from late 2001, September 3 2002, March 14 and September 2003. Second China-Brazil Earth Resources Satellite (CBERS 2).

• CX-1 Nation: China. Payload: Chuang Xin 1. Class: Technology, Data Gat. Agency: Chinese Academy of Sciences. Perigee: 686 km (426 mi). Apogee: 759 km (471 mi). Inclination: 98.50 deg. Period: 99.20 min. COSPAR: 2003-049B. USAF Sat Cat: 28058. Chuangxin-1 (or Innovation-1) was China's first experimental small satellite for store-and-forward short message data communications in low Earth orbit. With a mass less than 100 kg, the Chuangxin-1 was developed in light of national strategic demands. Starting from 1999 with support of the national Knowledge Innovation Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), the project was carried out jointly by researchers from the CAS Shanghai Institute of Microsystem Information Technology and the CAS Shanghai Institute of Technical Physics. The satellite used spread spectrum communication and subsystems included a communication transponder, onboard computer, attitude control, energy source, thermal control, and structure. The mission was to demonstrate data communications for such sectors as traffic and transportation, environment protection, oil and gas transportation, flood and drought control, detection of forest fire and earthquake monitoring.

• SJ-6A Nation: China. Payload: Shi Jian 6B. Class: Technology. Spacecraft: SJ-6. Perigee: 578 km (359 mi). Apogee: 593 km (368 mi). Inclination: 97.70 deg. Period: 96.40 min. COSPAR: 2004-035A. USAF Sat Cat: 28413. It was announced that the two satellites had a design life of at least two years, and would be used to probe the space environment, radiation and its effects, record space physical environment parameters, and conduct other related space experiments. The two satellites were built by the Shanghai Academy of Space Flight Technology and Dongfanghong Satellite Company under subcontract to the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation. The scientific instruments aboard the satellites were mainly manufactured by the China Electronics Technology Corporation. Some Western observors believed the mission of the satellites included electronic intelligence technology tests.

• SJ-6B Nation: China. Payload: Shi Jian 6A. Class: Technology. Spacecraft: SJ-6. Perigee: 593 km (368 mi). Apogee: 602 km (374 mi). Inclination: 97.70 deg. Period: 96.60 min. COSPAR: 2004-035B. USAF Sat Cat: 28414. CAST968 platform. Released one minute after SJ-6A.

• ZY-2C Nation: China. Class: Earth. Type: Resources. Spacecraft: ZY. Perigee: 479 km (297 mi). Apogee: 504 km (313 mi). Inclination: 97.30 deg. Period: 94.40 min. COSPAR: 2004-044A. USAF Sat Cat: 28470. Zi Yuan 2-3 was a low earth orbit digital imaging spacecraft used by the Chinese government, probably for both civilian and military reconnaissance purposes.

• Yaogan 1 Nation: China. Mass: 2,700 kg (5,900 lb). Class: Surveillance. Type: Military Radarsat. Spacecraft: Yaogan. Agency: CNSA?. Manufacturer: CASC?. Perigee: 627 km (389 mi). Apogee: 630 km (390 mi). Inclination: 97.80 deg. Period: 97.30 min. COSPAR: 2006-015A. USAF Sat Cat: 29092. Remote sensing satellite built by the Shanghai SAST Group. In reality it was the first Chinese synthetic aperture radar military surveillance satellite.

• SJ-6-2A SJ-6C Nation: China. Class: SIGINT. Spacecraft: SJ-6. COSPAR: 2006-046A. USAF Sat Cat: 29505. Replaced the SJ-6 Group 1 satellites A and B. Official purpose was to measure the space environment, but foreign analysts suspected a SIGINT role.

• SJ-6-2B SJ-6D Nation: China. Class: SIGINT. Spacecraft: SJ-6. COSPAR: 2006-046B. USAF Sat Cat: 29506.

• CBERS-2B Nation: China/Brazil. Class: Surveillance. Type: Civilian. Spacecraft: ZY. Perigee: 773 km (480 mi). Apogee: 775 km (481 mi). Inclination: 98.50 deg. Period: 100.30 min. COSPAR: 2007-042A. USAF Sat Cat: 32062. Third China-Brazil joint earth resources satellite. Much higher resolution optics and multispectral sensors expected to be useful for some military applications as well. The satellite raised its orbit to its operational altitude of 773 km two days after launch.

• 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.

• China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology, As of Nov 1998. Accessed at: http://www.calt.com.cn/.