China has launched its Yaogan 25 spacecraft and two sub-satellites using a Long March 4C launch vehicle flying out of the Jaiquan launch site in North West China. The launch occurred on 10 December at 1933GMT and the satellites were placed into a near circular orbit of just under 1,100km altitude and at 63.4 degrees inclination relative to the equatorial plane. The Yaogan triplet of spacecraft are believed to be involved in electronic intelligence (Elint) gathering related to ship surveillance. China has launched five similar missions to date. Officially, and as almost a parody of public relations on such matters, China’s news agency, Xinhua, describes the mission as being for “scientific experiments, natural resource surveys, crop yield estimates and disaster relief.”
