At 0414 GMT on 23 December 2017, China launched its YAOGAN 31-2 (LKW-2) remote sensing spacecraft into a sun-synchronous orbit. The launch took place from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre, China using an expendable Long March 2D/2 (CZ-2D/2) rocket. Officially the satellite has a civilian use but is suspected to be a military reconnaissance satellite based on the CAST 2000 Phoenix Eye bus design.
