HAIYANG: China’s AI satellites reached orbit on August 5 aboard a Smart Dragon-3 rocket lifted off at 10:38 am Beijing time.
It departed from waters near Haiyang in Shandong province. The Taiyuan Satellite Launch Centre ran the mission. China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation
said the rocket placed both satellites into planned orbits. Each satellite weighs about 300kg and carries a hyperspectral camera with 22 calibrated bands, Xinhua reported.
Each camera offers 5-metre resolution across a 300 km-wide imaging path. Xinhua said the pair could revisit locations worldwide every 5 days.
Their AI modules can perform up to 400 trillion operations per second. The modules can analyse images and identify unusual surface features in orbit.
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They can also extract useful details and compress data before sending it to ground stations. Xinhua said this could cut delivery times from days to minutes.
Hyperspectral cameras record a detailed spectral signature for each image pixel. These patterns can reveal crop health, water quality, soil content and minerals.
The pair will join an existing high-resolution satellite. The three satellites will combine wide surveys with closer views. Global Times identified Wuhan University as the developer. Star Vision Aerospace supplied the onboard AI tools.
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The satellites also carry the names Lampung-1 and Samarkand-2028. Uzbekistan’s Digital Technologies Ministry said that Uzbekcosmos experts developed the AI module for Samarkand-2028.
CASC told Global Times this marked Smart Dragon-3’s fourth launch this year and 12th flight overall.
