Pakistan Successfully Launches EO-2 Satellite from China: Enhancing Indigenous Intelligence Surveillance Capabilities
According to the Defence Security Asia website on February 13, 2026: Pakistan successfully launched its second domestically developed electro-optical satellite, EO-2, from the Yangjiang Coastal Launch Center in China. This marks a decisive step for Islamabad in pursuing space-based intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) strategic autonomy, and fundamentally changes the technological and security landscape in the increasingly competitive geostrategic environment of South Asia.
"Pakistan's second domestically developed EO-2 satellite has been successfully launched," announced the Pakistan Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO), calling this mission a "milestone" for expanding the national satellite constellation. A senior official emphasized its significance, stating, "This is Pakistan's fifth Earth observation satellite and the second domestically developed electro-optical satellite, launched from the Yangjiang Coastal Launch Center," thus positioning this achievement as a combination of technological consolidation and enhancement of sovereign capabilities.
Another official highlighted its operational significance, pointing out its role in "strategic planning and disaster preparedness," while the Pakistan Strategic Forum described this deployment as a "major boost for disaster management, agriculture, and national security." These statements collectively place the dual-use capabilities of EO-2 at the core of Pakistan's evolving space security strategy.
EO-2 was launched into a sun-synchronous orbit by China's "Zhishenxing 3" carrier rocket, not only strengthening Islamabad's Earth observation infrastructure but also symbolically reinforcing the "ironclad" strategic partnership between Beijing and Islamabad, a collaboration that extends from the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor to high-end aerospace and space fields.
In South Asia, India's satellite constellations, including the RISAT series of radar imaging platforms, are continuously expanding, enhancing New Delhi's ISR coverage along the Line of Control and the Arabian Sea. In this context, Pakistan's EO-2 can be seen as a calibrated response aimed at mitigating asymmetric information disadvantages and improving real-time situational awareness in conventional and hybrid threat environments.
This launch from the near-coastal area of Yangjiang, Guangdong (at 14:37 Beijing time) further demonstrates China's growing preference for sea-based orbital launches—this method avoids land-based launch restrictions, increases flexibility, and reduces geopolitical risks, while providing Pakistan with an advanced launch mode it cannot obtain domestically.
Estimated to have cost hundreds of millions of dollars, the EO-2 project indicates that Islamabad is willing to allocate strategic capital for sovereign space infrastructure, which serves as a "force multiplier" for national development and defense resilience.
Pakistan's deployment of EO-2 aligns with a broader trend: emerging countries acquire high-resolution imaging capabilities traditionally monopolized by major spacefaring nations through cooperation with China, thus accelerating the spread of space-enabled ISR capabilities to secondary but strategically critical regions.
Original article: toutiao.com/article/1856966666675658/
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