A Long March 6A rocket lifts off from Taiyuan, July 30 UTC, 2026, carrying the TJS-27A and B satellites. Credit: Ourspace
HELSINKI — China sent a new pair of secretive satellites into a programmatically new orbit Wednesday, while also upgrading its on-orbit communications relay capabilities.
A Long March 6A rocket lifted off at 9:00 p.m. Eastern July 29 (0100 UTC, July 30) from Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center. The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) announced launch success, revealing the payloads to be the communication technology test satellites 27A and 27B (TJS-27A and 27B.
CASC stated that the satellites are mainly to be used for satellite communication, broadcasting and television, data transmission and other services, and to carry out related technology experiments and verifications, providing no further details. CASC’s China Academy of Space Technology (CAST) and Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology (SAST) respectively developed TJS-27A and TJS-27B.
The U.S. Space Force later tracked the pair in 1,153-kilometer altitude orbits with an inclination of 64.8 degrees. Former astrophysicist and space activity tracker Jonathan McDowell noted on social media platform X that the orbits are characteristic of time-delay-of-arrival (TDOA) electronic intelligence satellites, with the U.S. version being the classified Naval Ocean Surveillance System (NOSS) network of U.S. reconnaissance satellites. “China’s earlier missions in this orbit were given a Yaogan rather than TJS cover name,” McDowell noted.
