An Australian company, HEO, has successfully imaged and modeled the enigmatic Chinese satellite Xinjishu Yanzheng-7 before its atmospheric reentry. This revealed previously unknown aspects of the spacecraft.
Xinjishu Yanzheng-7 (XJY-7), developed by the China Academy of Space Technology (CAST), was launched in December 2020 on the inaugural flight of the Long March 8 rocket. It was officially described as a technology verification satellite.
HEO, specializing in non-Earth imaging (NEI), which provides images of spacecraft in orbit, has provided new insights into the XJY-7, including a synthetic aperture radar (SAR) antenna. “HEO has characterised and verified key features of the XJY-7 satellite through repeated observations. These include the large radar dish that is now deployed and a SAR antenna,” HEO told SpaceNews.
According to HEO, “To maintain power generation, the spacecraft had to rotate its entire body due to fixed solar arrays. We also completed a few simultaneous imaging missions—where two satellites in our network imaged XJY-7 at the same time—that provided additional behavioural intelligence as we saw almost the entire satellite at a snapshot in time over certain geographies.”
By using multiple 2D observations across different angles, HEO was able to build a verified, high-fidelity 3D model of the spacecraft, revealing its true configuration and behavior. “There are many satellites like XJY-7 whose appearance, behaviour, size and purpose remain uncertain. High-frequency imaging is how we’re closing that gap,” HEO stated.
NEI aids satellite operators in diagnosing issues with spacecraft. It is also enhancing conventional Space Domain Awareness (SDA) methods. It can reveal shape models, attitude behavior, deployment states and operational patterns that conventional SDA systems may not resolve.
There's also a geopolitical aspect to satellite-to-satellite imaging. Maxar (now Vantor) previously released imagery of a Chinese Shijian satellite experiment, revealing details of what is believed to be a technology test for China’s new remote sensing. Changguang Satellite Technology later reciprocated with images of a Worldview satellite.
HEO has conducted approximately 4,000 imaging operations of spacecraft in low Earth orbit. The company aims to expand its services to the geostationary belt. “Our approach lets us capture large volumes of data across many objects quickly, like XJY-7, so we have a holistic understanding of many satellites in orbit and how it behaves,” HEO explained.
According to satellite tracker Marco Langbroek, XJY-7, launched via Long March 8 into a sun-synchronous orbit, reentered Earth’s atmosphere over the Canary Islands on October 16 (UTC).