CLASSIFIED
YAOGAN-27
Earth Observation (Dual-Use) · CNSA / PLA
Right now
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Part of China's Yaogan military-civil dual-use constellation. By 2015, the Yaogan series had given China a space-based awareness capability comparable in breadth — if not yet resolution — to US reconnaissance satellite programs that took decades to build. A generational shift in global space power achieved in under ten years.
Its orbit
- Orbit
- Low Earth Orbitcan appear as a fast-moving star at dawn or dusk
- Altitude
- 744–752 mi (1,198–1,211 km)
- Inclination
- 100.1°
- One orbit
- 109.4 minutes13.2 orbits a day
- NORAD ID
- 40878
- Int’l designator
- 2015-040A
- Launched
- 2015
Orbital elements from CelesTrak, as of 22 Sep 2026.
More classified
- YAOGAN-28Earth Observation (Dual-Use)
- YAOGAN-29Earth Observation (Dual-Use)
- YAOGAN-3Earth Observation (Dual-Use)
- YAOGAN-30 01Chinese Military Reconnaissance
- YAOGAN-30 02AChinese ELINT Naval Surveillance (Triplet Formation)
- YAOGAN-30 02BChinese ELINT Naval Surveillance (Yaogan-30 Triplet)