China Long March-6 Rocket Launch of SpaceSail Constellation Satellites
🚀🛰️A modified Long March-6A Y25 carrier rocket with a new satellite group blasted off from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in north China's Shanxi Province at 7:39 pm Beijing time on June 4, 2026. This marks the 648th flight mission of the Long March carrier rocket series. It was also the 36th launch from China in 2026. The Shanghai-supported satellite group is the 11th batch of the Spacesail (Qianfan) Constellation, a mega commercial Chinese low-orbit satellite network.
The Long March-6 (Chang Zheng 6), abbreviated LM-6 internationally or CZ-6 within China, is a Chinese liquid-fueled launch vehicle of the Long March family, developed by the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) and the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology (SAST). The first-stage is powered by two YF-100 engines, generating a combined thrust of approximately 244 tons using rocket-grade kerosene and liquid oxygen. The first-stage is augmented by four solid rocket boosters, each producing 124 tons of thrust from an unspecified solid propellant, resulting in a combined booster thrust of 492 tons. Together, the first-stage and boosters generate a total thrust of 736 tons. The second stage is powered by a single YF-115 engine, producing 18 tons of thrust also burning rocket-grade kerosene and liquid oxygen.
The Long March 6A is the first new-generation launch vehicle in China to utilize a combination of solid and liquid propellants. This vehicle was developed by the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology and utilizes a two-and-a-half-stage design. The boosters burn an unspecified solid propellant with the first and second stages burning rocket-grade kerosene and liquid oxygen.
On the launchpad, the Long March 6A is understood to be up to 52 meters tall, a handful of fairings are available, and weighs 530,000 kilograms when fully fuelled. The first and second stages of the vehicle have a diameter of 3.35 meters, while the solid-fuelled boosters have a diameter of 2 meters, the fairing has a diameter of 4.2 meters.
8,000 kilograms to low Earth orbit
4,500 kilograms to a 700-kilometer sun-synchronous orbit
The Spacesail (Qianfan) satellites are manufactured by commercial space firm Genesat (格思航天). This satellite launch brings the constellation’s total spacecraft count up to 182, surpassing GuoWang’s (国网) state-backed constellation of 168 for the first time in over seven months.
Each Qianfan satellite is reported to weigh 300 kilograms with a ‘flat pack’ design and a single solar array to fit as many satellites as possible inside the rocket fairing within two parallel stacks. For maneuvering in orbit, each satellite has an electric hall-effect thruster burning krypton to generate 20 millinewtons of thrust with a specific impulse of 1,385 seconds.
The Qianfan (千帆) mega-constellation, sometimes referred to as SpaceSail, is operated by Shanghai Spacesail Technologies Co. Ltd. (上海垣信卫星科技有限公司). It aims to provide space-based Internet connectivity services in China and abroad in places, including Brazil, Malaysia, Kazakhstan, Türkiye, and via airlines, as soon as the end of this year. The current deployment plan seeks to launch 324 satellites in 2026, another 324 in 2027, and 4,000 in 2028 and 2029, followed by 5,000 in 2030, with 15,000 total satellites approved to operate.
There have been three SpaceSail (Qianfan) satellites launches in the past 30 days.
Date: June 4, 2026
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