Cosmic Penguin

The confusion is, of course, we don't know what's the thing on board. Some say it's "Tianhui-3". Others say "TJSW-6". In any case NOTAMs point to a usual GTO launch direction. If the rumors are true though, it's not your usual comsat, but the world's 1st geosynchronous radar sat!pic.twitter.com/lcoXfWi6DG

Those who know about basic principles of synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) will know that the antenna has to move with respect to the target surface to work. Hence such a sat will have to be in an inclined GSO. And Chinese public sources mentions 1 such thing w/ 20m resolution!pic.twitter.com/7McaHfmhaE

What makes me wonder is while such ideas have been around for decades, why no-one else tried it when all-weather, ~24 hours seeing capability are as hot as it can be today. Why didn’t, say, the US put one over the Middle East? Maybe because the opponents are “pieces of cake”?pic.twitter.com/1Ur9cGZN4o

....great, the mystery deepens with launch day mail covers (a traditional memorial collectible) issued lately include a mail cover for the launch of TJSW-6 AND tracking of the launch of Tianhui-3 from the Yuan Wang tracking ships. These usually only pop up days before launch...pic.twitter.com/UqG22sFaaL

Well, it seems that....more reports coming in noting this “thingy” as TJSW-6, specifically one said it’s the same as no. 2 & 5, previously identified as the “Chinese SBIRS” early warning sats before. Tracking all these things are just like catching cats in buildings...pic.twitter.com/vCj46ipScS