Classified satellite reaches space for China's first 2022 launch

The Shiyan 13 test satellite has a currently unknown mission.

The satellite was launched from the northern Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center (TSLC) on January 17th at 10:35 a.m. local time (02:35 UTC) aboard a Long March 2D rocket. The launch site temperature was recorded at -37 degrees Celsius (-35 degrees Fahrenheit), requiring the launch team to add "product sealing measures" to the rocket to ensure a successful launch.

"The Experiment No. 13 satellite is mainly used to carry out space environment detection and related technology experiments," the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) wrote in a statement.

The CASC plans over forty space launch missions for 2022, after the record-breaking 55 Chinese space launches in 2021. The Shiyan satellites are a series of test satellites, with a non-sequential naming scheme, first launching in 2004. More than ten other Shiyan satellites are currently orbiting the Earth in sun-synchronous and geosynchronous orbits.