Banxing or BX-1 (),
is a small Chinese technology development satellite which was deployed from the
Shenzhou 7
Shenzhou 7 () was the third human spaceflight mission of the Chinese space program. The mission, which included the first Chinese extra-vehicular activity (EVA) carried out by crew members Zhai Zhigang and Liu Boming, marked the commencement o ...
spacecraft at 11:27
GMT
Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) is the mean solar time at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, London, counted from midnight. At different times in the past, it has been calculated in different ways, including being calculated from noon; as a cons ...
on 27 September 2008.
Prior to deployment, the satellite was mounted on top of the Shenzhou 7 orbital module.
Purpose
Banxing was used to relay images of the Shenzhou 7 spacecraft.
Weighing some 40 kilograms, and containing two cameras and communication equipment, it was maneuvered using an ammonia gas-based propulsion system.
Following the re-entry of Shenzhou 7, Banxing remained in orbit as part of a formation-flying experiment with the discarded Shenzhou orbital module.
A few hours after Banxing was launched it and the Shenzhou 7 orbital module passed unusually close to the
International Space Station
The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest modular space station currently in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA ( ...
. This provoked some speculation that the experiment was intended to test military
anti-satellite
Anti-satellite weapons (ASAT) are space weapons designed to incapacitate or destroy satellites for strategic or tactical
purposes. Several nations possess operational ASAT systems. Although no ASAT system has been utilised in warfare, a few ...
interception technology.
See also
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2008 in spaceflight
The year 2008 contained several significant events in spaceflight, including the first flyby of Mercury (planet), Mercury by a spacecraft since 1975, the discovery of Ice, water ice on Mars by the Phoenix (spacecraft), Phoenix spacecraft, whic ...
*
Orbital Express
image:Orbital Express 1.jpg, Orbital Express: ASTRO and NEXTSat
Orbital Express was a space mission managed by the United States Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and a team led by engineers at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center ( ...
References
Satellites of China
Shenzhou 7
Shenzhou program
Spacecraft launched in 2008
Spacecraft which reentered in 2009
2008 in spaceflight
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