The Kuafu project () is a Chinese space project to establish a
space weather
Space weather is a branch of space physics and aeronomy, or heliophysics, concerned with the varying conditions within the Solar System and its heliosphere. This includes the effects of the solar wind, especially on the Earth's magnetosphere, ion ...
forecasting system composed of three satellites, originally to be completed by 2012. As of the Solar Wind XIII conference in June 2012, the planned launch date was 2017. However, due to withdrawal first by Canada and then
ESA, the project was postponed. It was launched on 9 October 2022.
The project is named after
Kuafu, a giant in Chinese mythology who chased the sun and died trying.
One of these satellites would be placed at the Sun-Earth
Lagrangian Point L1, while the other two would be placed in polar orbits.
The first of the polar orbit satellites, the
Advanced Space-based Solar Observatory (ASO-S, also unofficially known as Kuafu-1 () ), was launched on 8 October 2022.
Because of the name "Kuafu", the project may be restarted.
References
Satellites of China
Space weather
{{China-spacecraft-stub