Gaofen-6 (GF-6)

Gaofen-6 (GF-6) is a Chinese high-resolution optical land-observation satellite operated by the China National Space Administration, launched on 2018-06-02 into a sun-synchronous orbit at approximately 640 to 645 km altitude with a 10:30 local imaging time.^[1][2] The mission carries two optical instruments: the Panchromatic Multispectral Sensor (PMS), providing sub-metre to 2 m panchromatic and multispectral resolution over a narrow swath, and the Wide Field View camera (WFV), covering an 800 km swath for wide-area monitoring.^[3][4] GF-6 operates with a 41-day repeat cycle and a 4-day revisit through dual-satellite coordination with Gaofen-1.^[1][2] Applications include vegetation index mapping for agriculture and forestry, land cover change detection, crop-type and crop-stress monitoring, and disaster damage assessment.^[5][1] The WMO OSCAR record lists a satellite mass of 805 kg at 640 km altitude, while the USGS system characterisation report gives a launch mass of 1080 kg at 645 km;^[1][2] mass is not stored in the mission record and the altitude range in the row reflects both sources.