江南造船
The class was first proposed by Premier Zhou Enlai in 1965, and the idea was personally approved by Mao Zedong in 1968. The first two ships of the class, "Yuanwang 1" and "Yuanwang 2", were built at the Jiangnan Shipyard in Shanghai and put to sea on 31 August 1977 and 1 September 1978 respectively. The general designer of this class is . For the first time, this gave the PRC the ability to track launches and satellites that were not over their territory.