Issue 68

11 Mar 2023: While a Chinese high-altitude balloon crossing the northern United States drew extensive attention, another Chinese object had been positioned over the geographic centerline of the United States and Canada since early November. TJS-7 was parked near 99.6°W longitude and was the only Chinese GEO satellite over the Western Hemisphere.

– TJS-7 launched on 24 Aug 2021 aboard a Long March 3B from Xichang and transitioned from GTO to GEO around 9 Sep 2021.

– It initially settled near 146.5°E north of Papua New Guinea and remained there for more than a year.

– In late Oct 2022, TJS-7 decreased its semi-major axis by about 332.3km and began an eastward drift, rejoining the GEO belt around 26 Nov 2022.

– The relocation from 146.5°E to 99.6°W corresponds to about 113.9° of longitude, roughly 84,000km along the GEO belt.

– The new position may support one of the SIGINT or missile-warning missions suspected for other TJS spacecraft, although the issue stresses that TJS-7’s actual mission is unknown.

– Open-source reporting had suggested a possible docking experiment between TJS-7 and TJS-6, but TJS-6 remained roughly 82° away near 178.4°E.

– TJS-2, -5, -6 and -7 were built by SAST and are believed by some analysts to be associated with China’s Huoyan missile-warning constellation. TJS-1, -4 and -9 were built by CAST and are assessed by some observers as SIGINT satellites. These mission attributions remain unconfirmed.

– Because TJS-7 is far outside the line of sight of Chinese mainland ground stations, the issue suggests its data may pass through a Tianlian-2 relay satellite or possibly a Chinese-built ground station in South America.