At 15:56 Beijing time on Saturday, June 14, 2025, a Long March-2D rocket lifted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China. Minutes later the Zhangheng 1-02 satellite sat in its planned orbit, according to the China National Space Administration (CNSA).
The satellite was built jointly with Italy. Its name honors Zhang Heng, the ancient Chinese inventor who made the world’s first seismoscope more than 1,800 years ago. CNSA says it is the first operational satellite dedicated to studying the Earth’s physical fields under China’s medium and long-term civil space infrastructure plan. It was also the 581st mission of the Long March rocket series.
What it carries
Zhangheng 1-02 has a designed lifespan of six years and nine payloads. China and Italy co-developed an electric field detector, and Italy supplied a high-energy particle detector.
The job is near-real-time monitoring of global electromagnetic fields and waves, the ionosphere and the neutral atmosphere. The satellite is meant to pick up electromagnetic anomalies from geological and human activity, and to watch thunderstorm and lightning activity.
“One of its functions is to monitor the electromagnetic waves and electromagnetic fields of the Earth, as these influence the crustal activities and electromagnetic patterns on Earth,” said Peng Wei, deputy director of the CNSA’s system engineering department. A second function, he said, is detecting the structure of the ionosphere and neutral atmosphere, mainly to serve the monitoring of extreme weather.
Scientists will use the data to study how changes in the Earth’s physical fields relate to geological activity, Peng said, and to support research on predicting earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, extreme weather and space weather disasters. He added that the satellite should sharpen China’s early warning, risk assessment and monitoring for major natural disasters. The data will also feed emergency management, resource mapping, and the communications and navigation industries, and it supports scientific cooperation among countries in the Belt and Road Initiative.
A second satellite in orbit
Zhangheng 1-02 builds on Zhangheng 1-01, a research satellite launched in 2018 to verify the technology, and still operating normally. The new craft is the operational version and adds an ionospheric optical instrument. Peng said he expects it to improve the precision of certain ionosphere and neutral-atmosphere measurements by an order of magnitude. The two satellites will observe together, which should improve the horizontal spatial and temporal resolution of the observations.
China is not the only country putting disaster-monitoring hardware into orbit. In April 2026, Tech Oman described OL-1, built by Oman Lens, as the country’s first AI-powered Earth observation satellite. It is meant to supply high-resolution data for urban planning, environmental monitoring and disaster management.
Sources
- China Launches Satellite for Natural Disaster Monitoring in Partnership with Italy
- China launches disaster watchdog satellite in space collaboration with Italy – The Arabian Stories News
- Oman Launches AI-Powered Satellite OL-1 for Urban Planning and Disaster Management | Tech Oman posted on the topic | LinkedIn
