Beidou DW 12 (BD-2 M3)

Spacecraft nº:

Chinese spacecraft nº: 181

Launch data:

Spacecraft data: Prime manufacturer  CAST Platform  DFH-3B bus Operator  Chinese Defense Ministry Mass at launch  2200 kg Dry Mass   kg Basic shape  Box + 2 panels Dimension (m)   Equipment   Solar array  2 deployable solar arrays Stabilization   Propulsion  490 N DC power   Design lifetime  > million years (active: 8 yrs)

The two satellites were transported to XSLC on March 5th and 7th, respectively.

Description:

• Part of Compass constellation.

Mission details:

• A Chang Zheng (Long March) 3B was launched from Xichang with a new large fairing and dual satellite adapter, carrying two Beidou-2 satellites called 'shier ke Beidou er hao weixing' and 'shisan ke Beidou er hao weixing' (Beidou-2 satellite 12 and 13) by CALT; they are also known as COMPASS MEO 3 and MEO 4.
• The two satellites were inserted in 200 x 21550 km x 55.0 deg orbits and will separately use their own apogee engines to make their orbits circular. Four objects with identifiers 2012-018A,B,C,D have been cataloged - the two Beidou, the CZ-3B third stage, and the intersatellite adapter. On May 6, A and B were still in the transfer orbit and no new elements for C and D are available since May 1. It's possible that C and D were really the payloads and have been temporarily lost after their move to the expected circular orbit.