China’s Long March 11 achieved the first commercial sea launch
China launched Long March 11 to sent “Jilin-1” high-scoring Group 03-1 satellites into its proper orbit by using the approach of “One Arrow Nine Stars” on Tuesday, at 9:23. The launch was a complete success. Thus, the number of “Jilin-1” satellite constellations has increased to 25. This mission is the 12th launch of the “Jilin-1” satellite project.
This is the first commercial launch at sea by Long March 11 after the successful completion of the first sea launch technology test in 2019, said Jin Xin, deputy commander of the Long March 11.
The Long March 11 is a four-stage solid launch vehicle with a total length of about 20.8 meters, a maximum body diameter of 2 meters and a total mass of about 58 tons. It is mainly used for launching low-earth orbit and sun-synchronous orbit payloads.
The successful launch of the “Jilin-1” high-scoring 03 group satellites consists of three video satellites and six push-broom satellites, including the “Bilibili video” satellite and the “CCTV video” satellite, developed by Changguang Satellite Technology Co. Ltd.
This group of satellites fully inherits the “Jilin-1” High Score 03A satellite mature single machine and technical basis, through the use of lightweight structure design, highly integrated electronics system, high-resolution ultra-lightweight low-cost cameras and other innovative technologies, so that the weight of the whole star is controlled in the order of 40 kilograms, with the characteristics of low cost, low power consumption, low weight and high resolution.
Among them, push-broom satellites can obtain push-broom images with a panchromatic resolution less than 1 meter, multi-spectral resolution less than 4 meters and width greater than 17 kilometers, and video satellites can acquire resolution less than 1.2 meters, a color video image covering an area of not less than 14.4 kilometers by 6 kilometers.
The successful launch of this group of satellites marks the shift of the “Jilin-1” satellite manufacturing model from “Research and Development” to “Production”, and the Constellation construction enters the stage of high-speed networking. “Jilin-1” will provide more abundant remote sensing data and product services for government, industry and users along the Belt and Road, and gradually push the remote sensing service into the mass market.