JB-1: FSW-0,1,2 film recoverable optical satellites
JB-2: FSW-3 film recoverable optical satellites
JB-3; Clark Designation: Optical-1; Manufacturer: CAST; Sensor: BISME; Launches: Ziyuan-2 1, 2, 3
JB-3: FSW-4 film recoverable optical satellites
JB-5; Clark Designation: Radar-1; Manufacturer: SAST; Sensor: IE; Launches: Yaogan 1, 3, 10
JB-6; Clark Designation: Optical-2; Manufacturer: CAST; Sensor: BISME; Launches: Yaogan 2, 4, 7, 11, 24
JB-7; Clark Designation: Radar-2; Manufacturer: SAST; Sensor: IE; Launches: Yaogan 6, 13, 18, 23
JB-8 ELINT; Manufacturer: DFH Launches: Yaogan 9, 16, 17, 20, 25 (triplets)
JB-9; Clark Designation: Optical-4; Manufacturer: SAST; Sensor: CIOMP; Launches: Yaogan 8, 15, 19, 22, 27
JB-10; Clark Designation: Optical-3; Manufacturer: CAST; Sensor: XIOPM; Launches: Yaogan 5, 12, 21
JB-11; Clark Designation: Optical-5; Manufacturer: CAST; Sensor: BISME; Launches: Yaogan 14
JB-12; Clark Designation: Optical-6 Launches: Yaogan 26
JB-13; Clark Designation: Optical-7; Manufacturer: CAST; Sensor: CIOMP; XX-13 camera.
AKA: Jian Bing.
JB-3 Chinese sun synchronous orbit military reconnaisance satellite. Built by CAST, it used a BISME (Beijing Institute of Space Mechanics and Electronics) optical sensor. |
JB-5 Chinese military surveillance satellite constellation. Launched from ?Jiuquan by the CZ-4C launch vehicle into 630, 98 deg inclination sun synchronous orbits beginning in 2006. Built by SAST. Reported to carry an IE (Institute of Electronics, CAS) side-looking radar system. |
JB-12 Chinese military surveillance satellite constellation using a BISME (Beijing Institute of Space Mechanics and Electronics) imaging sensor with an 0.8 m resolution. Built by CAST. Launched from Taiyuan by the CZ-4B launch vehicle into 470 km, 97 deg inclination sun synchronous orbits beginning in 2012. |
JB-9 Chinese military surveillance satellite constellation.Launched from Taiyuan by the CZ-4C launch vehicle into 1200 km, 100.4 deg inclination sun synchronous orbits. The first was launched in 2009, followed by annual launches beginning in 2012. Built by SAST. Reported to carry a CIOMP (Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics and Physics) optical imaging system, believed to be a low resolution mapping and area surveillance mission. |
JB-7 Chinese military surveillance satellite constellation. Launched from Taiyuan by the CZ-2C launch vehicle into 510 km, 97.5 deg inclination sun synchronous orbits beginning in 2009. Built by SAST. Reported to carry an IE (Institute of Electronics, CAS) side-looking radar system. |
JB-6 Chinese military surveillance satellite constellation. Launched from ?Jiuquan by the CZ-2D launch vehicle into 650 km, 98 deg inclination sun synchronous orbits beginning in 2007. Built by CAST; reported to carry a BISME (Beijing Institute of Space Mechanics and Electronics) optical imaging system. |
JB-8 Chinese military surveillance satellite. Each launch consisted of a primary satellite and two sub-satellites. Three sets of these triplets were launched from ?Jiuquan by the CZ-4C launch vehicle into 1090 km, 63.4 deg inclination orbits beginning in 2010. Reported to have a naval surveillance / sigint mission similar to those of the US PARCAE/NOSS system. This utilized a group of satellites flying in loose formation to locate radio emitters using the difference in time of arrival of the radio signals at the different satellites. Built by DFH. |
JB-10 Chinese military surveillance satellite constellation. Launched from Taiyuan by the CZ-4B launch vehicle into 490 km, 97 deg inclination sun synchronous orbits beginning in 2008. Built by CAST. Reported to carry the XIOPM (Xian Institute of Optics and Precision Mechanics) optical imaging system. |
JB-11 Chinese military surveillance satellite constellation using a BISME (Beijing Institute of Space Mechanics and Electronics) imaging sensor with an 0.8 m resolution. Built by CAST. Launched from Taiyuan by the CZ-4B launch vehicle into 470 km, 97 deg inclination sun synchronous orbits beginning in 2012. |
JB-13 Chinese military surveillance satellite constellation using the 1.3-m aperture CIOMP (Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics and Physics) XX-13 optical imaging system. Built by CAST. |
The ZY-2 (Ziyuan-2 ('Resource-2'), while disguised as a civilian earth monitoring system, was actually code-named Jianbing-3 and was China's first high-resolution military imaging satellite. The cover story of the official Xinhua news agency was that the civilian remote sensing system would be used primarily in territorial surveying, city planning, crop yield assessment, disaster monitoring and space science experimentation. However the satellite was placed at a much lower altitude than the ZY-1 satellite and US intelligence sources indicated that it was a photo-reconnaissance satellite for exclusively military purposes, such as targeting missiles at US and Taiwanese forces. The new satellite was believed to employ digital-imaging technology and to have a resolution of 2 m or less. The satellite was designed and built by the Chinese Academy of Space Technology and was developed indigenously. It was said to be more advanced than earlier sensing satellites and was expected to have an orbital life of two years. The camera provided more than three times the resolution of the ZY-1 earth resources satellite. The Zi Yuan 2 satellite may have used the CBERS Sino-Brazilian bus of the earlier ZY-1. However it was also said to be of new design and demonstrated the capability to maneuver in orbit, adjusting its orbit after launch. In October 2000 Chinese scientists denied that the ZY-2 satellite had a military mission. It was said to be a remote-sensing satellite equipped with CCD cameras and an infrared multispectral scanner that could only identify objects on the ground with a resolution of several dozen meters to 1 km.
JB-3 2 was nominally a Chinese (PRC) remote sensing satellite, although US intelligence sources indicated it had primarily an intelligence imaging mission. JB-3 2 was the name adopted by the USSPACECOM. Most news reports from China and elsewhere use different names: ZY-2B (acronym for ZiYuan-2B, translated as Resource-2B), and Zhong Guo Zi Yuan Er Hao, translated as China Resource 2. No information was available on the instruments onboard the JB-3 2, but officially it was intended 'for territorial survey, environment monitoring and protection, urban planning, crop yield assessment, disaster monitoring, and space scientific experiments'. The initial orbital parameters of this sun-synchronous satellite were period 94.1 min, apogee 483 km, perigee 470 km, and inclination 97.4°.
One of the two different series of military surveillance satellites launched under the YW designation, although YW 5 was in a lower orbit similar to the ZY-2 satellites, lower than previous YW satellites. The launch vehicle was announced as a CZ-4B, but appeared to be a CZ-4B with the CZ-4C's restartable YF-40A upper stage under the larger CZ-4C nose fairing.
Triplet of naval surveillance satellites, believed to operate like the old US PARCAE/NOSS system, in which a group of loosely formation-flying spacecraft locate radio emitters using the difference in time of arrival of the radio signals at the different satellites.
A new Yaogan satellite. The orbit was very similar to that of the Yaogan 1, 3 and 10 satellites though to be radar imaging vehicles developed by the Shanghai Academy of Space Technology (SAST). Placed in sun synchronous orbit with 04:30 Equator crossing time.