Abstract: The Major Project for High-Resolution Earth Observation System is one of the 16 major projects outlined in “The National Medium- and Long-Term Science and Technology Development Plan (2006-2020)”. Proposed in 2002 and completed its implementation evaluation in 2022, it spanned more than 20 years. The project broke through key technologies for multiple platforms and payloads, built a high-resolution Earth observation system, and greatly enhanced China’s capabilities in independent acquisition of high-resolution data and efficient guarantee of application services. Taking the full-cycle implementation practice of the major project as the research object, this paper reviews its conceptual origin and scheme demonstration approaches, analyzes key technical breakthroughs accomplished by the program, and summarizes landmark achievements covering product development, system construction, industrial promotion and system-of-systems Engineering. Combined with the development trends in the field of Earth observation, this paper prospects the future development of China’s related technologies, proposes the development directions of ultra-high performance, ultra-wide range, ultra-large scale and super-intelligence, and strongly supports the construction of a powerful space power.

Key words: high resolution, Earth observation system, major project, satellite remote sensing applications, system-of-systems engineering