BRICS makes progress in satellite constellation and with its own satellite
05 December 2019
During the 11th BRICS Summit in Brasilia in November, the leaders of the five BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) countries noted progress towards developing an own remote sensing satellite.
Recently, the Indian Secretary of State responsible for space has indicated that "progress has been made in technical discussions to realise a virtual constellation of remote sensing satellites, as part of the BRICS Programme. Technical aspects with respect to identifying the satellites and the ground stations for the initial virtual constellation were discussed by the Space Agencies.” The group of BRICS nations plans to share crucial data under a “virtual constellation of remote sensing satellites” which is made up of satellites contributed by BRICS space agencies.
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The enhanced X-Ray Timing and Polarimetry mission (eXTP) aims for wide international cooperation
07 December 2019
The eXTP is a China-led cutting-edge satellite observatory that aims to explore celestial bodies, such as black holes and neutron stars. The project, to be launched by 2027, has reached out for cooperation with scientists from more than 20 countries, including Italy, Germany, France, and the Czech Republic.
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Kuaizhou-1A launched Jilin-1 Gaofen 02B satellite
07 December 2019
The Jilin-1 Gaofen 02B satellite of the Jilin-1 satellite family, was launched on board the Kuaizhou-1A (KZ-1A) rocket from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Centre in China's Shanxi Province on 7 December at 10:55 Beijing Time. The new optical remote sensing satellite will form a network with the 14 previously launched Jilin-1 satellites, providing remote sensing data and services for agriculture, forestry, resources and environment.
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2-6-6 - Second launch of Kuaizhou-1A within 6 hours launched 6 satellites
07 December 2019
Within 6 hours China managed two launches from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Centre with the same rocket. The Kuaizhou-1A (KZ-1A) rocket launched six satellites on 7 December, at 16:52 Beijing Time. HEAD-2A and HEAD-2B were the first batch of satellites for the Skywalker Constellation. Spacety-16 and Spacety-17 satellites are medium-resolution micro-nano remote sensing satellites. Tianqi-4A and Tianqi-4B satellites are LEO satellites for IoT services, emergency communications and material tracking. The short turnaround demonstrated the rapid launch and emergency launch capabilities of the Taiyuan launch site.
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