Author Topic: Yaogan 13 launch (CZ-2C, Taiyuan), November 29, 2011  (Read 23195 times)

Online Galactic Penguin SST

Not sure where did this news came from (internal source?), but it seems that Yaogan 13 will be launched on a CZ-2C rocket from TSLC within the next three days. It was rumored that this satellite (apparently a light radar satellite) will replace Yaogan 6, which is approaching its nominal life time of three years.
« Last Edit: 11/29/2011 09:03 pm by Satori »
Astronomy & spaceflight geek penguin. In a relationship w/ Space Shuttle Discovery. Current Priority: Chasing the Chinese Spaceflight Wonder Egg & A Certain Chinese Mars Rover

Offline Satori

  • Moderator
  • Global Moderator
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 14425
  • Campo do Geręs - Portugal
  • Liked: 1969
  • Likes Given: 1156
Re: Yaogan 13 launch (CZ-2C, Taiyuan), November 2011
« Reply #1 on: 11/28/2011 08:45 am »
Great news! Thank you very much!

Offline Satori

  • Moderator
  • Global Moderator
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 14425
  • Campo do Geręs - Portugal
  • Liked: 1969
  • Likes Given: 1156
Re: Yaogan 13 launch (CZ-2C, Taiyuan), November 2011
« Reply #2 on: 11/28/2011 11:30 am »
Rumors that the launch can take place tomorrow.

Offline input~2

  • Moderator
  • Global Moderator
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 6810
  • Liked: 1540
  • Likes Given: 567
Re: Yaogan 13 launch (CZ-2C, Taiyuan), November 2011
« Reply #3 on: 11/28/2011 04:24 pm »
Rumors that the launch can take place tomorrow.
Snow shower is forecast for Tuesday (local time) in the TSLC area.

Offline Liss

  • Full Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 1883
  • Moscow, Russia
  • Liked: 1084
  • Likes Given: 88
Re: Yaogan 13 launch (CZ-2C, Taiyuan), November 2011
« Reply #4 on: 11/28/2011 10:11 pm »
A NOTAM that may be relevant to the topic. If Yaogan 6 is the predecessor, I should mention that it was launched at 02:55 UTC to sun-synchronous orbit with local time of descending node 10:01.

Quote
A1772/11 - THE SEGMENT NUKTI-JIAYUGUAN VOR 'CHW' OF ATS RTE B215 CLSD. 29 NOV 02:30 2011 UNTIL 29 NOV 03:30 2011. CREATED: 28 NOV 12:47 2011
This message reflects my personal opinion based on open sources of information.

Online Galactic Penguin SST

Re: Yaogan 13 launch (CZ-2C, Taiyuan), November 2011
« Reply #5 on: 11/29/2011 03:47 am »
Hmm... still no news from the Chinese, so it doesn't sound like it went up today. (maybe tomorrow?)

A NOTAM that may be relevant to the topic. If Yaogan 6 is the predecessor, I should mention that it was launched at 02:55 UTC to sun-synchronous orbit with local time of descending node 10:01.

Quote
A1772/11 - THE SEGMENT NUKTI-JIAYUGUAN VOR 'CHW' OF ATS RTE B215 CLSD. 29 NOV 02:30 2011 UNTIL 29 NOV 03:30 2011. CREATED: 28 NOV 12:47 2011

This was proven to be not related to this launch: the closed air-route was actually southwest of JSLC, near Dunhuang.
Astronomy & spaceflight geek penguin. In a relationship w/ Space Shuttle Discovery. Current Priority: Chasing the Chinese Spaceflight Wonder Egg & A Certain Chinese Mars Rover

Offline input~2

  • Moderator
  • Global Moderator
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 6810
  • Liked: 1540
  • Likes Given: 567
Re: Yaogan 13 launch (CZ-2C, Taiyuan), November 2011
« Reply #6 on: 11/29/2011 08:05 am »
No more snow, sunny weather forecast for to-morrow over the TSLC area

Online Galactic Penguin SST

Astronomy & spaceflight geek penguin. In a relationship w/ Space Shuttle Discovery. Current Priority: Chasing the Chinese Spaceflight Wonder Egg & A Certain Chinese Mars Rover

Online Chris Bergin

Do we know what time?
Support NSF via L2 -- Help improve NSF -- Site Rules/Feedback/Updates
**Not a L2 member? Whitelist this forum in your adblocker to support the site and ensure full functionality.**

Offline Satori

  • Moderator
  • Global Moderator
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 14425
  • Campo do Geręs - Portugal
  • Liked: 1969
  • Likes Given: 1156
Re: Yaogan 13 launch (CZ-2C, Taiyuan), November 30, 2011
« Reply #9 on: 11/29/2011 09:03 pm »
Launch confirmed at 1850:04UTC on November 29th,

Offline Stan Black

  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 3135
  • Liked: 377
  • Likes Given: 228
Re: Yaogan 13 launch (CZ-2C, Taiyuan), November 30, 2011
« Reply #10 on: 11/29/2011 09:21 pm »
Do we know what time?

Used Google to find
遥感卫星十三号

and found this
http://news.hexun.com/2011-11-30/135818759.html

Offline Liss

  • Full Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 1883
  • Moscow, Russia
  • Liked: 1084
  • Likes Given: 88
Re: Yaogan 13 launch (CZ-2C, Taiyuan), November 29, 2011
« Reply #11 on: 11/29/2011 10:42 pm »
Quote
北京时间2011年11月30日2时50分04秒,长征二号丙运载火箭在太原卫星发射中心顺利点火升空,成功将遥感卫星十三号送入预定轨道。

Quote
Beijing at 2:50:04 on November 30, 2011, Long March II C carrier rocket at the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center successfully blasted off successfully on the 13th of remote sensing satellite into orbit.
This message reflects my personal opinion based on open sources of information.

Online Galactic Penguin SST

I wonder if the launch time means that this satellite is used in conjunction with YG-6 for re-visiting areas of the Earth at morning and afternoon local times, with YG-13 being the "afternoon satellite"... ::)

A comparison with the launch times of the FY-3 weather satellite constellation (which are also in SSO):

FY-3A: 2008-05-27, 03:02 UTC
FY-3B: 2010-11-04, 18:37 UTC
YG-6: 2009-04-22, 02:55 UTC
YG-13: 2011-11-29, 18:50 UTC

That could also means that this is a radar satellite like YG-6 (especially as SAST was given as the satellite producer), which was described as the Chinese "Cosmos-Skymed/Radarsat-2", per a discussion by Chinese amateurs in 2009. With the preliminary orbit now up (~500 X 500 X 98.5 degrees), I think this is a plausible rationale for the chosen launch time.

« Last Edit: 11/29/2011 11:54 pm by Galactic Penguin SST »
Astronomy & spaceflight geek penguin. In a relationship w/ Space Shuttle Discovery. Current Priority: Chasing the Chinese Spaceflight Wonder Egg & A Certain Chinese Mars Rover

Online Chris Bergin

Support NSF via L2 -- Help improve NSF -- Site Rules/Feedback/Updates
**Not a L2 member? Whitelist this forum in your adblocker to support the site and ensure full functionality.**

Offline spacex

  • Full Member
  • *
  • Posts: 138
  • Liked: 0
  • Likes Given: 0
Re: Yaogan 13 launch (CZ-2C, Taiyuan), November 29, 2011
« Reply #14 on: 11/30/2011 12:27 am »
Record orbital launch attempts in a year for China (16)

Online Galactic Penguin SST

And some launch photos... (all photos by Yan Yan/Xinhua News)
Astronomy & spaceflight geek penguin. In a relationship w/ Space Shuttle Discovery. Current Priority: Chasing the Chinese Spaceflight Wonder Egg & A Certain Chinese Mars Rover

Offline spacex

  • Full Member
  • *
  • Posts: 138
  • Liked: 0
  • Likes Given: 0
Re: Yaogan 13 launch (CZ-2C, Taiyuan), November 29, 2011
« Reply #16 on: 11/30/2011 01:48 am »
Thanks Galactic. Hi-res!!

Online Galactic Penguin SST

For the record, the launch time was 18:50:04.467 UTC.
Astronomy & spaceflight geek penguin. In a relationship w/ Space Shuttle Discovery. Current Priority: Chasing the Chinese Spaceflight Wonder Egg & A Certain Chinese Mars Rover

Offline input~2

  • Moderator
  • Global Moderator
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 6810
  • Liked: 1540
  • Likes Given: 567
« Last Edit: 11/30/2011 06:42 am by input~2 »

Offline input~2

  • Moderator
  • Global Moderator
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 6810
  • Liked: 1540
  • Likes Given: 567
Re: Yaogan 13 launch (CZ-2C, Taiyuan), November 29, 2011
« Reply #19 on: 11/30/2011 04:56 am »
USSTRATCOM has catalogued 6 Objects (epochs between 0204UTC and 0337UTC on November 30)
  • 2011-072A/37941 in 504.8 x 511.2 km x 97.11°  (possibly Yaogan-13)
  • 2011-072B/37942 in 407.4 x 516.3 km x 97.02°  (possibly CZ-2C 2nd stage)
  • 2011-072C/37943 in 489.3 x 664.6 km x 97.27°  (possibly retro rocket fairing top#1)
  • 2011-072D/37944 in 491.7 x 643.9 km x 96.85°  (possibly retro rocket fairing top#2)
  • 2011-072E/37945 in 352.4 x 523.4 km x 97.28°  (possibly retro rocket fairing top#3)
  • 2011-072F/37946 in 338.3 x 520.5 km x 96.87°  (possibly retro rocket fairing top#4)
  • « Last Edit: 11/30/2011 05:09 am by input~2 »

    Tags:
     

    Advertisement NovaTech
    Advertisement Northrop Grumman
    Advertisement
    Advertisement Margaritaville Beach Resort South Padre Island
    Advertisement Brady Kenniston
    Advertisement NextSpaceflight
    Advertisement Nathan Barker Photography
    1