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Chinese space project From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Kuafu project (simplified Chinese: 夸父计划; traditional Chinese: 夸父計劃; pinyin: Kuāfù Jìhuà) is a Chinese space project to establish a space weather forecasting system composed of three satellites, originally to be completed by 2012.[1] As of the Solar Wind XIII conference[2] in June 2012, the planned launch date was 2017. However, due to withdrawal first by Canada and then ESA, the project was postponed.[3] It was launched on 9 october 2022.[4]
The project is named after Kuafu, a giant in Chinese mythology who chased the sun and died trying.
One of these satellites would be placed at the Sun-Earth Lagrangian Point L1, while the other two would be placed in polar orbits.[5]
The first of the polar orbit satellites, the Advanced Space-based Solar Observator (ASO-S, also unofficially known as Kuafu-1 (夸父一号) ), was launched on 8 October 2022.[6] Because of the name "Kuafu", the project may be restarted.