Doubts persist as to the true mission of China's Yaogan-30 "remote sensing satellite" that lifted-off suddenly and secretly from a launch site long known as a base for launching China's spy satellites.

Chinese official media said Yaogan-30 is a "remote sensing satellite" to be used for experiments, land surveys, crop yield estimates and disaster relief. The satellite was launched May 15 from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern China's Gobi desert by a Long March-2D rocket.

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NASA and U.S. intelligence sources, however, assert Yaogan-30 is really an electro-optical observation satellite based on the military Jianbing-6 electro-optical satellite series. Satellites of this class are equipped with electronic intelligence (ELINT), electro-optical and synthetic aperture radar-sensing equipment to conduct military spying on a global scale.

The Jianbing-6 series to which Yaogan-30 belongs carry high resolution optical sensors that have a resolution of between one to three meters. They are placed in sun-synchronous orbits that provide favorable illumination for their spy missions.

Similar satellites were Yaogan-2 launched on May 25, 2007; Yaogan-4 launched on December 1, 2008; Yaogan-7 launched on December 9, 2009; Yaogan-11 launched on September 22, 2010 and Yaogan-24 launched on November 20, 2014. China launched the first Yaogan series satellite, Yaogan-1, in 2006.

All these satellites and Yaogan-30 were launched by Long March-2D rockets from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. The military mission of Yaogan-30 probably explains why this satellite was launched without Chinese media being told about it beforehand, claims Western analysts.

The United States Strategic Command has given Yaogan-30 the codename 01-74.

Tagschina, Yaogan-30, remote sensing satellite, Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, NASA, Jianbing-6, United States Strategic Command