At 0743 GMT on 2 February 2018, the CAST-built Zhangheng -1 (CSES) spacecraft was launched on a Long March 2D/2 (CZ-2D/2) from the Jiuquan launch site in China. Unlike some of China’s military missions which masquerade as scientific satellites, the 730 kg spacecraft is a genuine scientific mission designed to collect Earth’s electromagnetic field, ionosphere plasma and high energy particles to monitor the signatures of earthquakes, volcanos and possible seismic precursors. There were six other satellites payloads on board the flight: weighing in at 37 kg each NuSat 4 and 5 are part of the Adelph 1 Earth observation constellation; Fengmaniu-1 is an Earth observation cubesat; GomX 4A and 4B are a nano-satellite pair which will demonstrate inter-satellite connectivity; Shaonian Xing is a Experimental Earth Observation 2U cubesat built by school students.
