Regarding this thingy named XJY-6-02, there are hints on what it can be, and there are guesses out there that seems to be very interesting:
* Back in October last year in an article from CASC this certain "XJY-6-02" was listed along with others as from CAST's new "Remote Sensing Satellite" sub-division, XJY-6 being the one dumped into the ocean on the 1st LM-7A flight last year. (
https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/vksJ0gJoG-CDUCEwi6w1fg)
* Looks like there's another hint from another article
mentioning the original XJY-6 (unfortunately I can't track down the original source) where one certain engineer Yu Kuai was mentioned. After more checking his name had appeared on a paper on removing vibrations on parts of high resolution, high orbit optical remote sensing satellites. (There are also reports that the program chief is a certain Li Jingdong who's known for leading optical observation satellite programs.)
* It seems to be a good fit for XJY-6 to be an optical observation satellite, and from other rumors it's going geostationary. We can also infer from the fact that it has to use the risky (as seen from last March) LM-7A instead of the proven LM-3B that it must be in the >5.5 tonnes to 7 tonnes range, something as big as on the limits of the Atlas V 421 or Falcon 9 ship recovery.
* What's even more interesting is that
CAST's "Space Antenna Technology Laboratory" is involved with this thing. Of an optical satellite that's doing "New Technology Validation" as per its "XJY" name?
Well, Chinese forum discussions were already guessing if it's testing optical membrane lenses a la
DARPA's MOIRE project, something similar that was already mentioned in Chinese academic papers in recent years. And with the Chinese very keen to put up large GEO observation satellites on the "higher ground" like GF-13 with dozen meter resolution, maybe they really want to try new things that would make these even sharper for 365/24/7 reconnaissance?
Well, Chinese forum discussions were already guessing if it's testing optical membrane lenses a la