1988 September 6 - 20:30 GMT - Launch Vehicle: CZ. LV Model: CZ-4A . Chang Zheng 4 CZ4-1 (19) FY-1A Mass: 750 kg (1,650 lb). Spacecraft: FY-1. Agency: MAI. Perigee: 875 km (543 mi). Apogee: 895 km (556 mi). Inclination: 98.80 deg. Period: 102.70 min. Experimental weather satellite. First use of new launch site and launch vehicle. Failed after 38 days due to problems with attitude control system.

1990 September 3 - 00:53 GMT - Launch Vehicle: CZ. LV Model: CZ-4A . Chang Zheng 4 CZ4-2 (24) FY-1B Mass: 881 kg (1,942 lb). Spacecraft: FY-1. Agency: MAI. Perigee: 875 km (543 mi). Apogee: 897 km (557 mi). Inclination: 98.80 deg. Period: 102.70 min. Experimental weather satellite. Operated for over a year.

1997 September 1 - 14:00 GMT - Launch Vehicle: CZ. LV Model: CZ-2C/SD . Chang Zheng 2C-III/SD CZ2C-15 (47) Iridium Mass: 689 kg (1,518 lb). Spacecraft: LM 700. Agency: CASC. Perigee: 620 km (380 mi). Apogee: 633 km (393 mi). Inclination: 86.34 deg. Period: 97.25 min. Plane 5. Ascending node 271.9 degrees. Dummy satellite.

1997 December 8 - 07:16 GMT - Launch Vehicle: CZ. LV Model: CZ-2C/SD . Chang Zheng 2C-III/SD CZ2C-16 (49) Iridium 42 Mass: 689 kg (1,518 lb). Spacecraft: LM 700. Agency: Iridium. Perigee: 776 km (482 mi). Apogee: 780 km (480 mi). Inclination: 86.40 deg. Period: 100.40 min. Plane 6. Ascending node 325.8 degrees.

1998 March 25 - 17:01 GMT - Launch Vehicle: CZ. LV Model: CZ-2C/SD . Chang Zheng 2C-III/SD CZ2C-17 (50) Iridium 51 Mass: 689 kg (1,518 lb). Spacecraft: LM 700. Agency: Iridium. Perigee: 751 km (466 mi). Apogee: 756 km (469 mi). Inclination: 86.45 deg. Period: 99.90 min. Plane 4. Ascending node 262.5 degrees. Not in service.

1998 May 2 - 09:16 GMT - Launch Vehicle: CZ. LV Model: CZ-2C/SD . Chang Zheng 2C-III/SD CZ2C-18 (51) Iridium 69 Mass: 689 kg (1,518 lb). Spacecraft: LM 700. Agency: Iridium. Perigee: 777 km (482 mi). Apogee: 783 km (486 mi). Inclination: 86.40 deg. Period: 100.46 min. Plane 2. Ascending node 199.4 degrees. Not in service.

1998 August 19 - 23:01 GMT - Launch Vehicle: CZ. LV Model: CZ-2C/SD . Chang Zheng 2C-III/SD CZ2C-19 (54) Iridium 3 Mass: 689 kg (1,518 lb). Spacecraft: LM 700. Agency: Iridium. Perigee: 776 km (482 mi). Apogee: 779 km (484 mi). Inclination: 86.40 deg. Period: 100.40 min. Plane 2. Ascending node 199.4 degrees.

1998 December 19 - 11:39 GMT - Launch Vehicle: CZ. LV Model: CZ-2C/SD . Chang Zheng 2C-III/SD CZ2C-20 (55) Iridium 11 Mass: 689 kg (1,518 lb). Spacecraft: LM 700. Agency: Iridium. Perigee: 776 km (482 mi). Apogee: 780 km (480 mi). Inclination: 86.40 deg. Period: 100.40 min. Plane 2. Ascending node 197 degrees. Parking orbit.

1999 May 10 - 01:33 GMT - Launch Vehicle: CZ. LV Model: CZ-4B . Chang Zheng 4B CZ4B-1 (56) FY-1C Spacecraft: FY-1. Agency: CASC. Perigee: 847 km (526 mi). Apogee: 869 km (539 mi). Inclination: 98.80 deg. Operational weather satellite. First launch of stretched CZ-4B booster. After retirement the satellite was destroyed in the first test of the Chinese ASAT weapon on 11 January 2007.

1999 June 11 - 17:15 GMT - Launch Vehicle: CZ. LV Model: CZ-2C/SD . Chang Zheng 2C-III/SD CZ2C-21 (57) Iridium 14A Spacecraft: LM 700. Agency: Iridium. Perigee: 708 km (439 mi). Apogee: 711 km (441 mi). Inclination: 86.50 deg. Period: 99.00 min.

1999 October 14 - 03:15 GMT - Launch Vehicle: CZ. LV Model: CZ-4B . Chang Zheng 4B CZ4B-2 (58) ZY-1 Mass: 1,540 kg (3,390 lb). Spacecraft: ZY. Agency: CAST/INP. Perigee: 773 km (480 mi). Apogee: 774 km (480 mi). Inclination: 98.60 deg. China-Brazil Earth Resources Satellite. China's first earth resources satellite, known as ZY-1, weighed 1,540 kilograms. Chief designer was Chen Yiyuan. The satellite, a joint project of China and Brazil, was designed to gather information on the environment, agriculture and urban planning through remote sensing images and data transmitted to China, Brazil and other countries. Planned lifetime was two years. The satellite circled the Earth 14 times a day and the groundtrack repeated after 26 days. By 23 February 2000 it had taken more than 20,000 high quality images. It was formally handed over for operational use on March 2 2000. The High Resolution CCD Camera had a resolution of 20 meters in the visible spectrum. The camera could point up to 32 degrees to either side of vertical, imaging the earth's surface stereoscopically. After 177 days the Wide Field Imager failed in early May 2000. Other devices, including the high resolution CCD camera, continue to work normally.

2000 September 1 - 03:25 GMT - Launch Vehicle: CZ. LV Model: CZ-4B . Chang Zheng 4B CZ4B-3 (62) ZY-2 Spacecraft: ZY. Agency: CAST. Perigee: 489 km (304 mi). Apogee: 501 km (311 mi). Inclination: 97.41 deg. Period: 94.43 min. 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.

2002 May 15 - 01:50 GMT - Launch Vehicle: CZ. LV Model: CZ-4B . Chang Zheng 4B CZ4B-4 (67) Hai Yang 1 Mass: 360 kg (790 lb). Spacecraft: HY-1. Agency: CASC. Perigee: 793 km (492 mi). Apogee: 799 km (496 mi). Inclination: 98.80 deg. The HY-1 (Haiyang-1) marine observation satellite separated shortly after the FY-1D. The 360 kg HY-1 was based on the SJ-5 bus and carried an IR radiometer and CCD imager for oceanographic studies. Between May 21 and May 26, HY-1 lowered its orbit to 793 x 799 km using on-board propulsion.

2002 October 27 - 03:17 GMT - Launch Vehicle: CZ. LV Model: CZ-4B . Chang Zheng 4B CZ4B-5 (68) ZY-2 Spacecraft: ZY. Agency: Chinese Academy of Space Technology. Perigee: 470 km (290 mi). Apogee: 483 km (300 mi). Inclination: 97.40 deg. Period: 94.10 min. 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°.

2003 October 21 - 03:16 GMT - Launch Vehicle: CZ. LV Model: CZ-4B . Chang Zheng 4B CZ4B-6 (72) ZY-1-2 (CBERS-2) Mass: 1,500 kg (3,300 lb). Spacecraft: ZY. Agency: China Aerospace Corp. (China), INPE (Brazil). Perigee: 731 km (454 mi). Apogee: 750 km (460 mi). Inclination: 98.50 deg. Period: 99.60 min. Delayed from late 2001, September 3 2002, March 14 and September 2003. Second China-Brazil Earth Resources Satellite (CBERS 2).

2004 July 25 - 07:05 GMT - Launch Vehicle: CZ. LV Model: CZ-2C . Chang Zheng 2C CZ2C-24 (77) Tan Ce 2 Mass: 660 kg (1,450 lb). Spacecraft: Double Star. Perigee: 655 km (406 mi). Apogee: 38,574 km (23,968 mi). Inclination: 90.00 deg. Period: 695.10 min. Delayed from June, July 20

2004 September 8 - 23:14 GMT - Launch Vehicle: CZ. LV Model: CZ-4B . Chang Zheng 4B CZ4B-7 (79) SJ-6A Spacecraft: SJ-6. Perigee: 578 km (359 mi). Apogee: 593 km (368 mi). Inclination: 97.70 deg. Period: 96.40 min. It was announced that the two satellites had a design life of at least two years, and would be used to probe the space environment, radiation and its effects, record space physical environment parameters, and conduct other related space experiments. The two satellites were built by the Shanghai Academy of Space Flight Technology and Dongfanghong Satellite Company under subcontract to the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation. The scientific instruments aboard the satellites were mainly manufactured by the China Electronics Technology Corporation. Some Western observors believed the mission of the satellites included electronic intelligence technology tests.

2004 November 6 - 03:10 GMT - Launch Vehicle: CZ. LV Model: CZ-4B . Chang Zheng 4B CZ4B-8 (82) ZY-2C Spacecraft: ZY. Perigee: 479 km (297 mi). Apogee: 504 km (313 mi). Inclination: 97.30 deg. Period: 94.40 min. Zi Yuan 2-3 was a low earth orbit digital imaging spacecraft used by the Chinese government, probably for both civilian and military reconnaissance purposes.

2006 April 26 - 22:48 GMT - Launch Vehicle: CZ. LV Model: CZ-4B . Chang Zheng 4B CZ4B-9 (89) Yaogan 1 Mass: 2,700 kg (5,900 lb). Spacecraft: Yaogan. Agency: CNSA?. Perigee: 627 km (389 mi). Apogee: 630 km (390 mi). Inclination: 97.80 deg. Period: 97.30 min. Remote sensing satellite built by the Shanghai SAST Group. In reality it was the first Chinese synthetic aperture radar military surveillance satellite.