At 13:04 on 9 January, Ceres 1 Yaowu carrier rocket was launched successfully at Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre, sent 5 satellites to planned orbit precisely. The ‘Nantong high school’ satellite launched this time, is the first hyper-spectral remote sensing satellite named after high school in our country. It is also the first satellite researched and delivered by private company this year. After the satellite is in operation, apart from fields including natural resources survey, environment monitoring, agriculture and forest survey, disaster prevention and control, it will also work on aerospace science promotion education and broadcast the school song of Nantong high school to the world in space.

‘Nantong high school’ satellite was invested by Zhongxin aerospace and VSAT Data technologies together, manufactured by Shanghai VSAT Technology Co., Ltd. Independently. The design life is 3 years. According to executive director of Zhongxin aerospace Zhao Feng, at 13:19:22 on 9 January, the satellite entered 507 km perigee and 509 km apogee orbit. The orbit period is 94.791 minutes; at about 16:20, after 2 rounds about the earth, the solar panels of satellite ‘Nantong high school’ was open successfully. Ground receiving station received the first batch of data from the satellite, which marked the successful launch of the satellite.

In the present, ‘Nantong high school’ is in orbit and working normally. The subsequent satellite data will be provided to Jiangsu province surveying and mapping engineering institute. It will also serve in fields including natural resources survey, environment monitoring, urban planning, agriculture and forest survey, disaster prevention and control in districts including Shanghai, Zhejiang and Jiangsu, to provide multivariate data and innovative solutions for intelligent city building and government digital reform.

Apart from that, after ‘Nantong high school’ entered the orbit and started operation, besides broadcasting school song of Nantong high school to the world, students of Nantong high school can observe deep space or ground from the survey and control platform in the school by remote control, and carry out relevant experiments with the satellite.

By Shen Liang