LM-4B Launches GF-7 and 3 Other Satellites into Orbit

A LM-4B launch vehicle lifted off from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center at 11:22 Beijing time on November 3,2019,successfully launching the GF-7 satellite,part of a major project of the China High-definition Earth Observation System (CHEOS)into its preset orbit.Three other satellites launched with GF-7 together were developed by the Shanghai Institute of Satellite Engineering,Shenzhen Aerospace Dongfanghong HIT Satellite Ltd.,and Spacety Co.,Ltd.(Changsha)respectively.The main mission of these satellites was for the demonstration of related remote sensing technologies.Of these one was the first Sudan satellite,SRSS-1.

Developed by the China Academy of Space Technology,GF-7 is China’s first civilian sub-meter level optical transmission stereo mapping satellite,and will play an important role in land surveying and mapping,urban and rural development,statistical survey,providing support for the planning of city clusters and agricultural and rural village development.

GF-7 is a scientific research satellite built to the most accurate mapping requirement in the GF series of satellites,and can conduct civilian stereo mapping with a scale of 1:10,000.China’s previous satellites had a mapping scale of 1:50,000 or smaller,and could locate highways and national roads.A scale of 1:10,000 enables GF-7 to accurately locate small country lanes.

GF-7 carries various payloads including a two-line-array stereo camera and a laser altimeter,which made a breakthrough in adopting sub-meter level stereo surveying and mapping technology,and can obtain optical stereo observation data with high spatial resolution,and high-precision laser altimetric data.The satellite not only has the forward-and backward-viewing stereo imaging ability from the same orbit,but also can acquire high-precision elevation information,greatly improving the uncontrolled elevation accuracy of optical stereo images and becomes the only satellite in the GF family that can take 3D pictures.The satellite will meet the high demand for high-precision stereo mapping data by customers for surveying and mapping,housing and construction and statistics in the field of basic surveying and mapping,GIS support,urban and rural development monitoring and evaluation,agricultural survey and statistics,increasing the level of China’s mapping satellite engineering and the self sufficiency for stereo mapping image data with high resolution.

The LM-4B launch vehicle which carried out this launch mission was developed by the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology.The 3-stage conventional liquid fuel launch vehicle is capable of launching various satellites with different orbital requirements,one or multiple during one launch.

Grid fin system based rocket first stage drop zone control technology was successfully demonstrated during this mission,thus laying a solid foundation for the development of the follow-on reusable launch vehicle.

This was the 316th launch of the LM series launch vehicle.