The Yaogan 8 (Remote Sensing Satellite-8) government remote sensing satellite, likely also used as a military reconnaissance satellite, was launched by a CZ-4C rocket from China's Taiyuan space center on 15. December 2009. It is the first of a new generation of optical reconnaissance satellites.

YG-8 was built by the Aerospace Shanghai Technical Institute of the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp. The optical payload on YG-8 was developed by the Changchun Light Technology Institute.

XW 1 (also known as CAS 1, Chinese Amateur Radio satellite 1) is the first Chinese amateur radio satellite.

XW 1 is a micro-satellite for amateur radio purposes. The payload includes a telemetry beacon, a linear transponder, an FM repeater, and a digital store-forward transponder. The operations all have 70 cm downlinks and 2-meter uplinks. The output for the transponder is 1 W and 200 mW for the beacon.