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HELSINKI — China launched a new Yaogan reconnaissance satellite late Sunday, following India’s launch of its highest mass communications satellite to date.
A Long March 7A lifted off at 10:47 p.m. Eastern, Nov. 2 (0347 UTC, Nov. 3) from Wenchang Satellite Launch Center on the southern island province of Hainan, rising into a grey sky. The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) announced launch success, revealing the previously undisclosed payload to be the Yaogan-46 satellite.
The satellite is expected to have entered geosynchronous transfer orbit (GTO) and, if confirmed, will later maneuver into the geostationary belt, 35,786 kilometers above the equator. Orbital data had not been released at the time of reporting.
All previous Yaogan satellites, bar one, have been sent to low Earth or sun-synchronous orbits. China does, however, operate the Gaofen-4 optical and Land Exploration-4 01 (Ludi Tance-4 (01)) synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellites in geostationary orbit.
Yaogan-46 was developed by CASC’s China Academy of Space Technology (CAST). CASC described the satellite to be mainly used in fields such as disaster prevention and mitigation, land resource survey, water conservancy and meteorology. This follows, but slightly deviates from, a standard description for satellites in the series, usually stated to be mainly used for scientific experiments, land resource surveys and disaster prevention.
The Yaogan series is, however, believed to be the designation for China’s military reconnaissance satellites. These include optical imaging and SAR satellites and electronic intelligence gathering triplets.
The September launch of Yaogan-45 also used a Long March 7A rocket. That mission however headed to medium Earth orbit (MEO), marking the 7A’s first launch for something other than GTO. Yaogan-45 is now in a circular 7,500-kilometer altitude MEO, ISR University notes, meaning it is operating in an area of the Van Allen radiation belt with peak high-energy proton density. GPS, Galileo, and Beidou satellites, which also operate in a region designated as MEO, orbit at around 20,000 km.
It is the first time the Long March 7 series—which includes the standard Long March 7 for launching Tianzhou cargo spacecraft to the Tiangong space station—has launched five times in a year. The rockets were developed by CASC’s China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT).
The first Long March 7 launched in 2016, and the first Long March 7A—which adds a cryogenic third stage—launched in 2020, but failed. The subsequent 10 launches have all been successful. CASC stated in the launch it aims to increase launch cadence to meet high intensity launch demands, but the rocket does not appear to be close to replacing the hypergolic Long March 3B, which launches inland from Xichang, southwest China, for GTO launches.
The launch follows Friday’s Shenzhou-21 crewed mission to Tiangong. The late Sunday Yaogan-46 mission marked China’s 68th orbital launch attempt of 2025, seeing China equal its record for launch attempts in a calendar year, set in 2024. Launch of a CAS Space Lijian-1 solid rocket, scheduled early Nov. 7 (UTC), will set a new record, with a Long March 12 launch from Hainan commercial spaceport set to follow Nov. 10.
India launches CMS-03 military satellite
Earlier Sunday, India launched its CMS-03 communication satellite. An LVM-3 rocket lifted off at 06:56 a.m. Eastern, Nov. 2 (1156 UTC), from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota, with the satellite successfully entering GTO around 16 minutes later.
At 4,410 kilograms, CMS-03 is the heaviest communication satellite to be launched into GTO from Indian soil, according to the ISRO mission brochure. As this exceeds the standard 4,000 kg to GTO capability for the LVM-3, the satellite has a sub-GTO apogee of 29,970 km, with the satellite required to conduct orbit raising to reach GEO.
Once in position, the multi-band satellite will provide coverage of India and the wider oceanic region for the Indian Navy, facilitating real-time communications for air defence and strategic command control, according to Indian media reports.
The launch was the fifth operational flight of the LVM-3, according to ISRO. The previous launch carried the Chandrayaan-3 lunar spacecraft, which made India the fourth country to successfully soft-land on the moon. The LVM3 is also being human rated for the Gaganyaan project.
The launch was India’s fourth orbital launch attempt of 2025. The first LVM-3 uncrewed test flight for Gaganyaan could take place in December, while a PSLV launch is also currently scheduled for December.
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