Any idea if it's being broadcasted and if so where?
They are rarely shown live....and you can be safe in the assumption someone would have posted a link.
Apparently liftoff has occurred per people on site.
Launch sucess has been confirmed....and it's Yaogan-30.
Liftoff was at 02:43 UTC on a CZ-2D.
Here's confirmation of the launch.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2016-05/15/c_135360215.htmJIUQUAN, Gansu, May 15 (Xinhua) -- China's Yaogan-30 remote sensing satellite was sent into space on Sunday at 10:43 a.m. from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern China's gobi desert.
The satellite will be used for experiments, land surveys, crop yield estimates and disaster relief.
Yaogan-30 was carried by a Long March-2D rocket, the 227th mission for the Long March rocket family.
China launched the first "Yaogan" series satellite, Yaogan-1, in 2006.
1st object cataloged by USSTRATCOM
2016-029A/41473 in 690 x 704 km x 98.23°
1st object cataloged by USSTRATCOM
2016-029A/41473 in 690 x 704 km x 98.23°
A 2nd TLE shows now an orbit of
626 x 655 km x 98.07° (epoch 04:13UTC)
This is very similar to the orbit of Yaogan-2 (626 x 654 km x 98.02°)
Expected launch mission codename is "01-74"
A 2nd TLE shows now an orbit of
626 x 655 km x 98.07° (epoch 04:13UTC)
This is very similar to the orbit of Yaogan-2 (626 x 654 km x 98.02°)
RAAN-wise, YG30 orbit is closer to that for YG-11 among all JianBing-6 in orbit: 188.7° vs 178.7°
A wrong text on a YG-30 souvenir envelope issued by Shanghai Philatelists seems to indicate that originally the launch of another bird from TSLC using a CZ-4C was on the agenda but was postponed or deleted due to a unknown reason.
A wrong text on a YG-30 souvenir envelope issued by Shanghai Philatelists seems to indicate that originally the launch of another bird from TSLC using a CZ-4C was on the agenda but was postponed or deleted due to a unknown reason.
A thought about the "original" YG-30
Recent YG launches from TSLC, using the CZ-4C include:
YG-29 on Nov. 26, 2015, hypothesized to be a radar reconnaissance satellite of a successor version to JB-5 (YG-1, 3, and 10).
Five JB-9 optical reconnaissance satellites (YG-8, 15, 19, 22, 27), including most recently YG-27 on August 27, 2015.
If the originally intended launch was not for new model of payload, perhaps it would have been another of one of the two types above?
On some commemorating items for YG-30(03) a strange spacecraft image was shown. It is definitly not YG-30(03), because known images for this latter series are showing a very different appearance. But the spacecraft design shown at the former items is similar to the Jianbing-6 series. Maybe the items designer got accidently a photo of YG-30 instead of YG-30(03).
The answer is probably "no" but has the issue of the Yaogan Weixing launch from Taiyuan on a CZ-4C been resolved?
No advance warning of the Taiyuan launch so this would seem to preclude a launch failure and there are no missing launch codes for Taiyuan. Maybe it was due further into the future than May 2016 and it was cancelled before a launch code was issued: and it is still on the ground.
