China continues to actively develop space. This past weekend, the country conducted a new launch of the Shiyan (“Experiment”) series satellite using the Long March 4C launch vehicle. The rocket launch took place on May 11 at 19:43 Eastern Time (23:43 GMT) from the Jiuquan Cosmodrome in the Gobi Desert in northwestern China. After the successful launch, Chinese officials announced that the Shiyan-23 satellite was launched into orbit.

Details about the purpose of the new satellite have not yet been disclosed. The only official statement is that Shiyan-23 will be used to monitor the space environment. Such vague wording is standard for the classified Shiyan series, in which various experimental devices can be hidden.

Over the past two decades, China has launched at least 36 Shiyang satellites. Some exhibited “unusual maneuvers” in orbit. It is assumed that tests of various new technologies are carried out within the framework of the program.

In 2013, a series of reports were published about unusual maneuvers of Chinese satellites in orbit. Analysts later recorded unusual maneuvers of one of the satellites, Shiyan-7 (SY-7). According to Bob Christie of Zarya.info, SY-7 made a series of orbital changes that brought it closer to one of its companion moons, Chuanxin-3 (CX-3), after which SY-7 unexpectedly found another Chinese spacecraft, Shijian. He approached. 7″ (SJ-7) was launched into orbit in 2005. According to Jonathan McDowell, editor of Jonathan’s Space Report magazine, this satellite changed orbit several times and then remained inactive for long periods.

SY-7, CX-3 and Shijian-15 (SJ-15) were launched into orbit with a single launch vehicle in July 2013. The official Xinhua news agency reported that all three vehicles were designed for “scientific experiments of space maintenance technologies.”

Shortly after the launch, Bob Christie wrote, citing his own sources, that one of the satellites carried “a prototype manipulator for intercepting other satellites.” This device could be a precursor to the Chinese space station’s robotic arm. According to Christie, the observed maneuvers resembled “a simulation of approach and docking with the space station and a satellite maintenance experiment” and may also be related to tests of anti-satellite weapons (ASAT, Anti-Satellite Weapon). China conducted a successful ASAT test in 2007 and destroyed one of its satellites; The resulting cloud of more than 3,000 pieces of space debris raised international concern and led to the development of an “international code for space sustainability.”

This year’s launch was the 522nd launch of the Velikiy Pohid rocket family. In total, China plans to carry out about a hundred space missions in 2023. The most recent include the return of the lunar probe “Chan’e-6” to Earth with soil samples taken from the far side of the Moon. If successful, this will be the first sample delivery from this region of the Earth satellite.