According to the official Chinese news agency Xinhua, China successfully launched the Yaogan-21 remote sensing satellite at 0322 GMT on 08 September 2014 using a Long March 4B rocket flying from Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center. Also launched on the flight was the Tiantuo-2 satellite, designed and built by the National University of Defense Technology. Officially Yaogan-21 will be used for scientific experiments, natural resource survey, estimation of crop yield and disaster relief. However Western analysts believe this to be a military electro-optical reconnaissance satellite. Officially Tiantuo-2 was designed for smart satellite experiments, but is thought to be a test of a Chinese AIS ship identification system, along with a simple optical system.
