Overview

Since 1968, China has been developing various satellite products. After almost 40 years’ endeavor, several types of application satellites have been developed independently by China, including telecommunication satellite, meteorological satellite, recoverable remote-sensing satellite, earth resources satellite and scientific experimental small satellite.

Communications Satellite

In 1970，China's first satellite was successfully launched into the pre-defined orbit. Since then China has developed more than 10 GTO communications satellites. Up till now, DFH series of geo-synchronous orbit communications satellites have been successfully developed --- DFH-2, DFH-2A, DFH-3 and DFH-4. The DFH-2 and DFH-2A are spin-stabilized satellites, and DFH-3 is a 3-axis stabilized satellite.

DFH-4 satellite is the third generation communications satellite of China. In contrast with the first and second generations, it possesses several advantages as follows: large power, strong payload capacity and long in-orbit life. The design life span of DFH-4 is 15 years. With 38 C band and 16 Ku band transponders, it is mainly used to provide communication broadcast and DTH satellite services.

Technical parameters of the DFH series of communications satellites are listed below:

Recently, the DFH-4 communications satellite has been successfully exported, setting an important record-breaking milestone for China’s satellite export’s business.

Recoverable Satellite

The recoverable satellite - FHW series (FHW-I and FHW-II) has been successfully launched since 1975. As of today, 20 recoverable satellites were successfully launched

With the FHW series recoverable satellites, the following services are available to the customers:

• Territory investigation, photographic mapping
• Space material experiments
• Space biological experiments
• Special piggyback experiments services
• Space breeding
• Acquisition & application of remote sensing

Meteorological Satellite

Seven meteorological satellites (four FY-1 and three FY-2) have been successfully developed and launched as of today. With these two series of satellites, satellite weather forecast and monitoring system network has been established in China.

FY-1
FY-1 is a polar orbit meteorological satellite. There are several multi-frequency band high resolution scanning radiometers onboard FY-1 meteorological satellite.

FY-2
FY-2 is a geo-stationary orbit meteorological satellite. It has a multi-channel scanning radiometer. Its payload includes the S-band transmission and cloud picture broadcasting transponder, UFH/S band data-collecting transponder and space environment monitoring equipment.

Earth Resources Satellite

On October 14, 1999, CBERS-01 jointly developed by China and Brazil was successfully launched by an LM-4 launch vehicle. On October 21, 2003, CBERS-02 was also successfully launched , demonstrating China’s capability of developing earth resources satellite and satellite application products. Both parties are also going to continue their cooperation on CBERS-03 and 04 in the near future. CBERS-01 and 02 set a good example of cooperation between the developing countries.

Experimental Small Satellite

Based on combination of new high technology and matured technology, China efficiently developed a series of experimental small satellite at low cost. At present, China has successfully launched SJ-4,SJ-5 and SJ-6 satellites. On the basis of Haiyang-1A satellite, Haiyang-1B satellite is under development. Besides, the basic type of general small satellite platform has come into being. Space technology experiment, space environment exploration and ocean exploration could be conducted to meet customer’s demands.