Eighth Qianfan Satellite Group Placed Into Earth Orbit [Long March 6A Y23]
The Shanghai-backed connectivity mega-constellation is back to routine deployments with a new launch from Taiyuan.
Blasting off from Launch Complex 9A at the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center at 19:59 pm China Standard Time (11:59 am Universal Coordinated Time) on May 12th, and subsequently spotted flying south by an incredible ‘jellyfish’ effect, a Long March 6A flew into a near-polar orbit while carrying a new group of connectivity satellites.
Those satellites were another eighteen Qianfan satellites for the constellations ‘Polar Group 09 (千帆极轨09组卫星)’, its eighth overall, manufactured by the Innovation Academy for Microsatellites, Chinese Academy of Sciences (中国科学院微小卫星创新研究院). This launch brings the constellation’s total spacecraft count up to 144.
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), aims to provide space-based internet connectivity services in China and abroad in places like Brazil, Malaysia, Kazakhstan, and via airlines, as soon as the end of this year. As of December 2025, the deployment aims should have 324 satellites launched 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.
Today’s Qianfan deployment comes just over a month from its previous one, and is indicative of resumed regular deployments from multiple launch sites. The previous satellite group for the constellation came seven months after a return to space to allow for an observation period of fixes implemented to prevent new satellites from stranding themselves.
Each Qianfan satellite is believed to weigh 300 kilograms with a ‘flat pack’ design, with a single solar array, to fit as many satellites as possible inside the rocket fairing in 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.
After this launch mission’s successful conclusion, the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology shared that Long March 6A teams at Taiyuan have improved and optimized their issue flagging and mitigation processes through the different stages of pre-flight preparations. Those methods were also improved upon for the launch vehicle’s previous outing.
Today’s launch was the 23rd mission for the Long March 6A, the 266th Long March vehicle from the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology, and the 642nd launch of the Long March launch vehicle series. This was also the 28th launch from China in 2026.
Liftoff video via 垣信卫星 on WeChat.
What is the Long March 6A?
This section is for those less familiar with China’s Long March series of launch vehicles.
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.
The payload capacity of the launch vehicle is currently as follows:
8,000 kilograms to low Earth orbit
4,500 kilograms to a 700-kilometer sun-synchronous orbit
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 using also burning rocket-grade kerosene and liquid oxygen.
On the launchpad, the Long March 6A is believed 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.
So far, every Long March 6A has launched from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center, in the north of Shanxi province.
