Gaofen 7

China's first civilian sub-metre stereo mapping satellite, Gaofen 7 gave the country its own high-resolution cartographic capability. Its twin-array stereo camera captures panchromatic images at sub-metre resolution, while a two-beam laser altimeter supports surveys at 1:10,000 scale - precision that Chinese mapmakers had previously relied on foreign sensors to provide.

Among the secondary payloads, Xiaoxiang 1-08 (Dianfeng) carried the first iodine cold-gas thruster to fly in orbit, built by the Paris-based startup ThrustMe.