Lift-off for first Hong Kong satellites in Greater Bay network
- Golden Bauhinia devices sent into orbit from Shanxi and reached near-Earth orbit, operator says
- Satellites expected to improve coverage of Hong Kong and zone in southern China
The remote-sensing satellites – Golden Bauhinia N1-01 and Golden Bauhinia N1-02 – lifted off from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Centre in Shanxi province aboard a Long March 6 carrier rocket and reached their intended near-Earth orbit, Hong Kong Aerospace Technology Group said.
Seven other satellites – three remote-sensing satellites for eastern Shandong province, and four others for satellite testing, real-time imaging, and observation of small celestial bodies – were also sent up.
“It is expected that by the end of 2021, the follow-up satellite of the first formation of the Golden Bauhinia constellation will also be launched. The second-formation satellite launch of the constellation will be launched in due course,” the group said.
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According to SpaceNews and NASASpaceFlight.com, two US-based aerospace news portals, the GB N1-01 and GB N1-02 were developed by ZeroG Lab, a Beijing-based developer of micro- and nanosatellites.
Starting with the two low-orbit micro-satellites in the first formation, HKATP will introduce larger satellites in the future, including radar and infrared satellites, according to Hu Mingyuan, from HKATG.
Chen Wu, a land surveying and geo-informatics professor at Hong Kong Polytechnic University, said the project was significant because it would allow better satellite coverage for Hong Kong and the Greater Bay region.
“If you have 165 satellites, their orbits can be arranged in a way ... it can provide almost continuous observation in the Greater Bay [area]. No other satellites are now concentrated here,” Chen said.
He said special cameras installed on the satellites captured images of the Earth’s surface, and the data collected could be used for transport, land use, monitoring fires and detecting pollution.
“For instance, having images every 30 minutes would allow you to understand the traffic situation of the whole region so you can optimise the traffic network. Or you can monitor instances of illegal dumping and the fire that it has caused. The images can show how the fire is developing and how to make smarter decisions to control it.”
Having a Hong Kong-based operator would also speed up the access to satellite imagery of the region, compared to waiting for about a week when sourced from Europe or the United States, Chen said.
Smart city construction is one key development area listed under the 14th five-year plan, a mega economic development blueprint for China covering 2021 to 2025.
The China Academy of Information and Communication Technology, a research institute affiliated with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said in its study released in December that investment in smart cities across mainland China reached 1.7 trillion yuan (US$262 billion) in 2019, with more than 700 pilot schemes.
Satellite internet services were among the growth areas brought by the smart city boom, the study found.
