China Long March 8 Rocket Launch of Qianfan Constellation Satellites in Hainan

China Long March 8 Rocket Launch of Qianfan Constellation Satellites in Hainan

The China Long March 8A Y9 launch vehicle lifted off from the Wenchang Commercial Space Launch Site in China's southern Hainan province on July 5, 2026, at 21:43 pm China Standard Time (13:43 pm Universal Coordinated Time). This was the largest Qianfan Group to be delivered to a polar orbit via an upgraded Long March 8 launch vehicle. The Long March 8A has had a few upgrades made to its systems, while infrastructure for it in Wenchang has expanded, too.

Making up the largest group to date, the fourteenth overall, were twenty satellites manufactured by the Innovation Academy for Microsatellites, Chinese Academy of Sciences. This brings the total number of Qianfan satellites deployed up to 238 with all past the second hundred coming within the past two days.

Costing under 10 million Yuan (~1.47 million USD, as of July 4), each Qianfan satellite weighs 300 kilograms with a ‘flat pack’ design using 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.

Long March 8A rocket upgrades include improved insulation on the second-stage, keeping propellants in their desired temperature window longer, as well as the introduction of the YF-75DB engine, boasting cleaner and more possible startups. They all allow for a stated payload capacity increase of almost 1,000 kilograms.

The China Aerospace Science and Technology Commercial Launch Vehicle Group acted as the liaison between the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology and Shanghai Spacesail Technologies for this launch mission.

This mission was the 9th launch of a Long March 8A vehicle, the 16th launch of the Long March 8 series, and the 656th launch of the Long March launch vehicle series. This was also the 47th launch from China in 2026.

Image Credit: China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CAST)
Text Credit: Jack C.

Date: July 5, 2026

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