Nautilus
Institute at RMIT
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Nautilus
Institute at RMITRMIT / Our Organisation / Research / Groups in Research and Innovation / Nautilus Institute at RMIT
Austral Special Report 07-14S 14 June 2007
Source: Post by pacman on Chinese Military Forum, 2007-04-22
On 11 January 2007, the PRC successfully tested a direct-ascent, kinetic-kill anti-satellite (ASAT) vehicle, destroying an inactive Chinese Feng Yun 1C (FY-1C) weather satellite (launched in 1999). The satellite was in a polar orbit, at an altitude of 865 km (537 miles), and was attacked when it passed over the Xichang Space Centre in Sichuan province.
The launch vehicle was probably a mobile, solid-fuel KT-1 missile, a version of the DF-21 MRBM, with a range of 1,700 km to 2,500 km, although according to some accounts it was a KT-2, also mobile and solid-fuel, based on DF-31 IRBM/ICBM technology, with a range of more than 6,000 km. The launch vehicle and warhead were guided to the target by ground-based radars.
This figure shows a schematic of China's ASAT test. The main image shows a three stage process:
The missile is launched from Xichang Space Centre on 11 January 2007. The missile is marked as a KT-2 missile in this diagram. It has a length of 114 feet, a diameter of 9 feet, a range of up to 4,000 miles and a mass of 40 tonnes.
The KT-2 missile enters orbit.
The warhead is fired towards the satellite which is orbiting 530 miles above the Earth. The satellite is identified as an FY-1C satellite. It has a length of 4 ft, a diameter of 4 ft and a mass of 0.88 tonnes.
There is also a map showing where above China the test took place. The image shows a map of central China, with Beijing in the top right and Xichang in the center lower third of the picture, in Sichuan provance.
The figure has been taken from a post by pacman on Chinese Military Forum, on 22 April 2007.This figure is part of a talk given by Desmond Ball, entitled Assessing China's ASAT program. The full text of the talk is available.
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