But officials believe China’s eventual adoption of reusable technology could enable rapid, large-scale deployment of both commercial and military satellites — reducing America’s current lead. Ron Lerch, Sidari’s senior enlisted advisor and an intelligence specialist, called Beijing’s progress in other areas of space technology equally troubling. Lerch highlighted the Sept. 9 launch of Yaogan 45, a remote sensing satellite Beijing has described as a platform for scientific experiments and disaster prevention. “So this is 2,000 kilometers above Earth, very unusual to put a remote sensing satellite higher than low Earth orbit. And a year later, the Chinese are now putting remote sensing capability at MEO as well.