41026 - YAOGAN 28

As is usual for the Chinese media, this spacecraft is once again classed as a new remote sensing bird that will be used for scientific experiments, land survey, crop yield assessment, and disaster monitoring.

As was the case in previous launches of the Yaogan Weixing series, analysts believe this class of satellites is used for military purposes.

As was the case with the former Soviet Union (and in a smaller scale with Russia) with the 'Cosmos' designation, the 'Yaogan' designation is used to hide the true military nature of the vehicles orbited.

Yaogan-28 is probably the third Jianbing-11 4th generation of electro-optical satellites.

Developed by the Chinese Academy of Spaceflight Technology and based on the Phoenix Eye-2 platform, the satellite is capable of high-resolution observation and also carries an IR payload.

Facts in Brief

Launch Date: 2015-11-08
Launch Vehicle: Long March 4B
Launch Site: Taiyuan, Peoples Republic of China