According to Chinese experts, a tiny, one-ton Chinese satellite can swiftly capture high-definition photographs of US cities that are so precise that they can identify specific military vehicles and the weaponry they carry.

The commercial Beijing-3 satellite was launched by China in June. It scanned a 1,470-square-mile region of San Francisco Bay in 42 seconds, according to The South China Morning Post, citing findings published this month in the Chinese peer-reviewed journal Spacecraft Engineering.

The satellite has a distinct advantage: it can tilt and yaw at up to 10 degrees per second while maintaining image quality as it orbits the Earth, according to senior scientist Yang Fang, who oversaw the project managed by DFH Satellite Company under the Chinese Academy of Space and Technology.

Normally, satellite cameras must be maintained stationary in order to capture high-resolution photos, so they can only see straight strips of land as they circle over the region. As a result, they must occasionally fly over a place numerous times in order to scan the whole area or function in concert with other satellites.

According to researchers, the Beijing-3's agility allows it to view entire regions, and if equipped with artificial intelligence, it can potentially observe up to 500 areas around the world with up to 100 revisits a day.

Beijing-3 can take photos with a maximum resolution of 20 inches per pixel. However, its experts claim that the Chinese satellite's response time is two to three times faster than that of Worldview-4, the American developed satellite, which was deactivated in 2019 due to a breakdown in its stabilizing mechanism.

China could overtake the US in space technology

The revelation confirms the US' fear that China's space technology is advancing at an "alarming" rate. 

General David Thompson, vice chief of space operations in the US Space Force, warned earlier this month that China could overtake the US in space capabilities by 2030.

"The fact that they are constructing, fielding, and upgrading their space capabilities at twice the rate we are, implies that very soon, if we don't start increasing our research and delivery capabilities, they will overtake us."