Tianyan (satellite)

Tianyan
天眼卫星
Tiānyǎn Wèixīng
Program overview
CountryPeople's Republic of China
PurposeEarth observation, Reconnaissance
StatusActive
Program history
First flight20 December 2019
Successes3
Failures0
Launch site(s)TSLC
Vehicle information
Launch vehicle(s)

Tianyan (Chinese: 天眼; pinyin: Tiānyǎn; lit. 'Sky/Heaven Eye'), often translated into English as SkyEye or Eye in the Sky, is a reconnaissance satellite program of the People's Republic of China. To date, the Tianyan satellite program has launched one satellite from the Yizheng class (Yizheng-1) and two satellites from the Xingshidai class (Xingshidai-8 and 12).

The name Tianyan (天眼) in Chinese can also refer to CCTV cameras, concept of the third eye ('divine eye' in Chinese Buddhism), clairvoyance, a 2005 cartoon, 2015 British thriller film Eye in the Sky, or the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST) — a ground-based radio telescope in Guizhou Province nicknamed Tianyan.