On December 27th, at 15:44 UTC, China launched the Yaogan-33R mission atop a Long March 4C rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in China. The satellite is believed to be a replacement for Yaogan-33, which was launched in May 2019 but failed to reach orbit.

The Yaogan satellites are government remote sensing satellites that can be used for tasks such as scientific experiments, land surveys, and disaster prevention and mitigation.

Also onboard the rocket was Weina 2, a Chinese nanosatellite that reportedly belongs to the Shanghai Micro Satellite Engineering Centre. Beyond that, it’s a technology demonstration payload. We really can’t tell you anything else about its mission or configuration.

More Information

CASC press release (Chinese)

Xinhua article (Chinese)

People’s Daily article (Chinese)

Yaogan-33R info page (Gunter’s Space Page)

Weina-2 info page (Gunter’s Space Page)