China continues to accelerate the pace of its launches into space. This Wednesday he made a rocket Long March 8A that has become the number 600 from that of Long March 1 which took place on April 24, 1970 and put the satellite into orbit Dongfanghong-1. This milestone comes alone 22 months later after China achieved its number one launch 500reflecting the communist country’s push for its aerospace industry.
With this week’s launch, China has put the twelfth group of satellites in the constellation into orbit Guowangdesigned to compete with starlinkexpanding its broadband network in low Earth orbit.
Following the success of Starlink, several countries have announced similar projects. China develops Guowang, Russia It plans its own constellation – whose tests will begin in 2027 – and the European Union is also promoting the creation of a similar network.
However, they all go far behind Starlinkwhich currently has more than 8,000 satellites in orbit. Guowang is the most advanced among the restbut it has a maximum of 95 satellitesaccording to SpaceNews. China plans to expand that number to more than 400 in 2027 and up to 13,000 in subsequent years.
Close-up lifting up footage of the CZ-8A. via China航天 pic.twitter.com/jgtyC8FqW2
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One of the reasons for Starlink’s success and rapid expansion is that SpaceX can Add additional satellites to your Falcon 9 rocket launches when you have spare payload capacitysomething that is impossible for almost any other country or company and that gives it an enormous competitive advantage.
The Long March 8A is a variant of the standard Long March 8: it maintains the side thrusters, uses engines YF-75H of hydrogen and liquid oxygen in the second stage and has a wider cowling, 5.2 meters in diameterto encapsulate groups of satellites. So far, the four Long March 8A launches have carried batches of Guowang satellites.
China needed until 2007 to launch their first 100 Long March rockets and up 2021 to reach the number 400. The last 100 have been released in less than two years, and could reach to about 70 launches in 2025 alone. Wednesday’s mission was China’s 62nd orbital launch in 2025, bringing the country very close to surpassing its annual record of 68 launches in 2024.
Most of these flights have used hypergolic rockets Long March 2, 3 and 4while the new versions with hydrogen-liquid oxygen and kerosene-liquid oxygen engines -Long March 5, 6, 7 and 8- They began operating in the mid-2010s. Currently they are developing the Long March 10intended for manned missions to the Moon, and the Long March 9large capacity. The first reusable Long March could be the 12A, whose launch is expected before the end of the year.