Kuaizhou 2 satellite

Kuaizhou 2 (KZ-2)

China

Spacecraft nº:

Chinese spacecraft nº: 238

Re-entered date:	09 Oct 2016 (.7)
Lifetime:

KUAIZHOU 2 (KZ-2) will be used to monitor natural disasters and provide disaster-relief information. Kuaizhou means "speedy vessel" in Chinese.

The second launch of the Chinese 2nd Artillery's operationally responsive Kuaizhou (Swift Boat) launch vehicle on Nov 21, 2014 placed Kuaizhou-2 in a 284 x 300 km x 96.6 deg orbit, with 1300 local time descending node. Kuaizhou 1 was launched to a similar orbit with 1100 LTDN in Sep 2013; after regular maintenance burns for a year, during Oct 2014 Kuaizhou 1's orbit was raised to 365 x 390 km.

Ref.: #3(SD528), #7(JR706), #207, #228 - update: 28.03.17