Launched on 6 September 2008, HJ-1 is composed of 2 optical satellites HJ-1A and HJ-1B, and 1 radar satellite.
HJ-1A is equipped with 1 CCD camera and 1 hyperspectral imager, and HJ-1A is equipped with 1 CCD camera and 1 infrared camera. The 2 CCD cameras were adopted the same design, and they are placed symmetrically at nadir and split the field of view and observe in parallel and realize imagery of 700 km swath, 30m resolution and 4 spectral bands. The hyperspectral imager enables HJ-1A 50km swath, 100m resolution and 110～128 bands and ±30°oblique viewing angle. The infrared camera enables HJ-1B 720km swath, 150/300m resolution and 4 spectral bands.
Operator: SpaceView (China).
Technical characteristics of HJ-1A
| Mode: | CCD camera | HIS (hyperspectral) |
| Sensor bands (µm): | blue: 0.45–0.52 green: 0.52–0.59 red: 0.63–0.69 |
0.45-0.95 (110-128 bands) |
| Spatial resolution, m: | 30 | 100 |
| Dynamic range: | 10 bits | |
| Swath width: | 700 km | 50 km |
Technical characteristics of HJ-1B
| Mode: | CCD camera | IRMSS (infrared) |
| Sensor bands (µm): | blue: 0.45–0.52 green: 0.52–0.59 red: 0.63–0.69 Near-IR: 0,77–0,89 |
Near-IR: 0,77–0,89 SWIR1: 1,55–1,75 SWIR2: 3,5–3,9 TIR: 105-125 |
| Spatial resolution, m: | 30 | 150 |
| Dynamic range: | 10 bits | |
| Swath width: | 700 km | 700 km |
| Revisit time: | 4 days | |