AIRSAT Technology Group (SATech)

AIRSAT Technology Group — officially Zhongke Weixing Technology Group Co., Ltd. (中科卫星科技集团有限公司), and referenced in some databases as "SATech" — is a Chinese commercial aerospace company founded in December 2020 in Jinan, Shandong Province, initiated by the Aerospace Information Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (AIRCAS). The "Zhongke" (中科) prefix directly reflects this Chinese Academy of Sciences heritage, positioning the company within China's state-linked commercial space sector.

The company designs, builds, and operates Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) and optical remote-sensing satellites, offering Earth observation data services for marine environment monitoring, polar navigation and research, land resource surveys, and disaster emergency response. Its business spans whole-satellite design and manufacturing, satellite operations management, an aerospace information resource pool, and downstream data platforms including a rapid remote-sensing service platform, a thermal-anomaly (high-temperature point) monitoring platform, and a data visualization platform.

AIRSAT launched its first satellites, AIRSAT-01 and AIRSAT-02 (also designated Zhongke-01 and -02), aboard a Lijian-1 solid rocket in September 2024, carrying Ku-band SAR payloads with better-than-1-meter resolution and featuring a novel unfolded cylindrical parabolic SAR antenna — a first global application of this antenna architecture. Subsequent satellites, including AIRSAT-08 (dual-polarization SAR and low-light optical, launched December 2024) and AIRSAT-05 (with on-orbit AI processing, launched August 2025), have expanded the constellation.

AIRSAT is building a broader remote-sensing satellite constellation combining high-resolution SAR and optical capabilities, and continues to conduct new spacecraft test campaigns, including work on reusable/return-type spacecraft, positioning it as one of China's emerging commercial Earth-observation satellite operators.