FSW Launch Times

[Liss]

The Chinese edition of Aerospace China (No.5, 2008) published an article titled China's Recoverable Satellites in their English contents. While the article contains a table of all FSW launches, in fact it is devoted to the latest two versions of recoverable satellites.

The author gives designation of FSW-3 to the three satellites launched by CZ-2D for 18 days and 286 orbits, and FSW-4 to the two satellites launched by CZ-2C for 27 days and 420 orbits. He/she seems to link FSW-3 to FSW-1 and FSW-4 to FSW-2/FSW-0 programs. He/she also includes Shijian-8 in the list, probably linking it to FSW-2.

What can be easily understood from the Chinese text is the list of the six launches with launch and landing times:

FSW-3 (01) CZ-2D 20031103 15:20:04 18/286 20031121 10:04
FSW-3 (02) CZ-2D 20040927 16:00:04 18/286 20041015 10:49
FSW-3 (03) CZ-2D 20050829 16:45:04 18/286 20050916 11:28
FSW-4 (01) CZ-2C 20040829 15:50:05 27/420 20040925 07:58
FSW-4 (02) CZ-2C 20050802 15:30:03 27/420 20050829 07:38
SJ-8 CZ-2C 20060909 15:00:04 15/236 20060924 10:43


(times are Beijing time)

[Phillip Clark]

I would be interested to know what references are given to source material in this article - especially for the FSW-3 and FSW-4 designators.   I have seen these on SinoDefense.com, but in the past Chinese articles have echoed back western speculations without making it clear whether the information is accurate or not.   I recall in the early 1990s the same publication reproduced (in Chinese!) a paper that I had published in Janes' Intelligence Review: at first I thought there was an article confirming all of my numbers and other calculations!

Does this new article give masses for the satellites, by any chance?   If the above writer wants to contact me direct (s)he can do so at [email protected].