CBERS-4A, ETRSS-1 and others - CZ-4B - Taiyuan - December 20, 2019 (03:22 UTC)

[Steven Pietrobon]

Some screen grabs.

[jcm]

A launch timeline is shown in the 9ifly thread, but as I don't have an account there, the resolution is not readable.

http://www.9ifly.cn/forum.php?mod=redirect&goto=findpost&ptid=14865&pid=700737

See below. CZ-4B s/n Y44 was used for this launch.
I can translate the whole brochure at others' request.

What is the first word/phrase on step 13 of the launch sequence? (ideally pasting the Kanji, I can't copy from the image to google translate).
I assume it refers to the two NUDT satellites but I can't make it out.

I'm having trouble matching the brochure to the sats. It looks like the sequence is:

T+798  CBERS 4A sep
T+833  Upper adapter sep
T+868  medium-large payload Tianqin 1 sep
T+905  medium-small payloads NUDT sats?  and Tianyan-02 sep
T+947  small payloads Ethiopia, Floripa, Tianyan-01, and Guozhi.. (Weilai1R) sep

But this doesn't seem consistent with the rest of the discussion about the payloads which should
be 
medium size:   ETRSS, Guozhi/Weilai-1R, Yizheng/Tianyan-01
medium-small: Tianqin-1
small :      Floripa, Tianyan-02
unknown but probably small:  NUDT sats Yuheng and Shuntian

Clarification sought :-)

Your satellite separation is correct. I won't trust the size of the satellite models used other than the number of satellites.... 

I hear you, but it is also pretty standard practice to separate the big ones first and the cubesats last so I am a bit surprised about
the late sep of ETRSS-1.

Do you have any idea about the size of the NUDT satellites? In the past they have launched everything from femtosat scale
to 100 kg class. I am guessing these two are more likely the latter, but they could be maybe 6U or 12U cubesats.

[limen4]

The satellites Yuheng and Shuntian were built by Shanghai ASES Spaceflight Technology but used by NUDT for intersatellite communication experiments. According to the ASES web page the satellites are based on companies Star Light SL-B platform. for which a total weight of 20-40 kg is given. NUDT named the mission of both satellites Gemini-1 (双子座).

[Liss]

Xinhua on Tianqin-1: http://www.xinhuanet.com/science/2019-12/31/c_138669115.htm

[zandr]

Xinhua on Tianqin-1: http://www.xinhuanet.com/science/2019-12/31/c_138669115.htm

and English
China tests micro propulsion technology for space-based gravitational wave detection

[koroljow]

According to http://www.smartsatellite.com/details?article_id=74 commercial sales of imagery from ETRSS-1 has begun. So it seems to be alive. Even if we (USSPACECOM) still dont't know which object from 2019-093 is representing ETRSS-1...

[otter]

Chinese gravitational wave detection technologies report encouraging test results

http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2020-08/24/c_139314618.htm