| Tianyan | |
| Country: | People's Republic of China |
| Purpose: | Reconnaissance |
| Status: | Active |
| Firstflight: | 20 December 2019 |
| Successes: | 3 |
| Failures: | 0 |
| Launchsite: | TSLC |
| Native Name A: | 天眼卫星 |
| Native Name R: | Tiānyǎn Wèixīng |
Tianyan, often translated into English as SkyEye or Eye in the Sky, is a reconnaissance satellite program of the People's Republic of China. To date, the Tianyan satellite program has launched one satellite from the Yizheng class (Yizheng-1) and two satellites from the Xingshidai class (Xingshidai-8 and 12).
The name Tianyan in Chinese can also refer to CCTV cameras, concept of the third eye ('divine eye' in Chinese Buddhism), clairvoyance, a 2005 cartoon, 2015 British thriller film Eye in the Sky, or the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST) — a ground-based radio telescope in Guizhou Province nicknamed Tianyan.
Tianyan-1, alternatively identified as Yizheng-1, is a commercial Chinese electro-optical Earth-imaging reconnaissance satellite launched in 2019.[1] Yizheng 1 reportedly has a spatial resolution of 0.9 meters.
Tianyan-1 was designed and funded by Zhongxing Space Remote Sensing Satellite Technology Service Co. Ltd., a private company based in Jiangsu Province's Yizheng Economic Development Zone, where the satellite derives its name.[2] Tianyan-1 is the first satellite designed by the company and is the first of eight planned satellites in the Yizheng constellation according to Guo Haiyu.[3] The satellite was launched by the private satellite company MinoSpace, also known as Beijing Weina Starry Sky Technology Co. Ltd., based in Haidian District, Beijing.[4] This launch was the company's fifth.[5]
Tianyan-1 was launched at 11:22 am (CST) on 20 December 2019 aboard a Long March 4B (CZ-4B) rocket from Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center (TSLC) Launch Site 9 into a sun-synchronous low-earth orbit (LEO). 16 minutes after the launch (at 11:38), once the rocket had exited the atmosphere and deployed the Tianyan-1, the ground station began to receive telemetry data, and one minute later (at 11:39), the satellite indicated that it had successfully deployed its antenna and solar panels.[6] Tianyan-1 was launched in the "One Arrow and Nine Stars" mission alongside eight other satellites:[7]
In a ceremony held the day of the launch, Liu Changrong, director of the Yizheng Economic Development Zone, announced that Tianyan-1 was the first sub-meter high-resolution optical remote sensing satellite to be independently developed, designed, manufactured, launched, and operated from Jiangsu Province. A press release published three days following the launch by Yizheng City Natural Resources and Planning Bureau described the satellite as weighing 72 kilograms and bearing a high-resolution imager to support natural resource monitoring, disaster prevention, urban planning, and emergency management; though the satellite likely also supports reconnaissance missions of the Chinese government.[9]
Tianyan-2, alternatively known as Xingshidai-8, is a commercial Chinese 6U CubeSat reconnaissance satellite bearing both a low-resolution Earth video-imager launched. The satellite also carried the nickname SciFi World AI Satellite as a dedication to the SciFi community.[10] [11]
Tianyan-2 was jointly-developed by Beijing Micro-Nano Star and Chengdu Guoxing Aerospace Technology Co., Ltd.
Tianyan-2 was launched in 2019 alongside Tianyan-1 (Yizheng-1) as part of the "One Arrow and Nine Stars" mission at 11:22 am (CST) on 20 December 2019 aboard a Long March 4B (CZ-4B) rocket from Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center (TSLC) Launch Site 9 into a sun-synchronous low-earth orbit (LEO).
Tianyan-5, alternatively known as Xingshidai-12 or as the University of Electronic Science and Technology (ESTC) satellite, is an earth-imaging satellite bearing an additional experimental '6G' communications payload. The satellite's imager and communications payload sit upon a MN50 satellite bus built by Weina (Minospace). Tianyan-5 was launched on a Long March 6 rocket from Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center (TSLC) on 6 November 2020 but decayed two years and nine months later on 8 August 2023.
| Tianyan-1 | Yizheng-1 | 20 December 2019 | Earth observation | SSO | 617.7 km × 636.2 km | 97.8° | 97.1 min | 44881 | Long March 4B | TSLC Site 9 | Operational | ||
| Tianyan-2 | Xingshidai-8 | Earth observation | SSO | 604.3 km × 623.2 km | 97.9° | 96.8 min | 44882 | Operational | |||||
| Tianyan-5 | Xingshidai-12 | 6 November 2020 | Earth observation,Experimental communications | Decayed on 08 August 2023 | 46837 | Long March 6 | TSLC Site 16 | Decayed | |||||
| Tianyan-? | Yizheng-2 | TBD March 2024 | Earth observation | Unknown, not yet launched | Jielong-1 | JSLC Site 95, Pad B | Unlaunched | ||||||
| Tianyan-? | Yizheng-3 | Earth observation | Unknown, not yet launched | Unlaunched | |||||||||
| Table data sourced from Gunter's Space Page, N2YO, and the United States Space Force 18th Space Defense Squadron (18SDS) | |||||||||||||