Long March 12B Debuts With Qianfan Carrying Mission [Long March 12B Y1]

While not performing a reusable first-stage attempt on its debut outing, the launch vehicle did successfully deploy customer satellites from Jiuquan on its first go.

The Long March 12B Y1 launch vehicle lifting off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center on June 1st 2026. | Image: China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation

Debuting from the Long March 12 series’ Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center launch pad, the Long March 12B lifted off at 16:40 pm China Standard Time (08:40 am Universal Coordinated Time) on June 1st, heading towards polar orbit with a group of customer satellites.

Riding atop of the new rocket were two Qianfan satellites as part of the tenth group to-date, having been produced by Genesat (格思航天), a commercial spacecraft manufacturer, and shipped to the launch site around February. Today’s launch brings the constellation’s total spacecraft count up to 164.

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 including Brazil, Malaysia, Kazakhstan, Türkiye, and via airlines, as soon as the end of this year. As of December 2025, the deployment aims should have 324 satellites launched in 2026¹, 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.

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.

The China Aerospace Science and Technology Commercial Launch Vehicle Group’s patch for the Long March 12B Y1 launch mission on June 1st 2026. | Image: China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation

Following confirmation that the payloads onboard were released into their desired orbit, the China Aerospace Science and Technology Commercial Launch Vehicle Group shared that the debut flight verified all key systems and engineering decisions. Adding as well that the Long March 12B is now China’s most capable single-core rocket, able to lift up to 20,000 kilograms into low Earth orbit, while marketing it towards the building of Earth orbit constellations.

Omitted by the Commercial Launch Vehicle Group, the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, owner of the enterprise, and supporting academy’s clarified that despite real appearing grid fins and mockup landing legs being present on the first-stage, no booster recovery trials were performed during the flight, other than to understand effects caused during ascent. Those are expected to take place on later missions, likely after a downrange landing site is established².

Preparations to perform the debut flight began back in January with a static fire, a few weeks after its liquid methane and liquid oxygen-consuming distance cousin, the Long March 12A, flew. Design work is said to have begun twenty months ago, in September 2024.

In a surprise to many observers not directly informed by the launch vehicles’ operator, was that the Long March 12B flew today, as limited hazard notices and aircraft restrictions were correlated to determine a flight path ahead of launch. A similar incident happened in October 2025 with a Long March 2D.

Today’s launch was the 1st for the partially reusable Long March 12B, the 7th launch of the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology-supported Long March 12 series, and the 647th launch of the Long March launch vehicle series. This was also the 35th launch from China in 2026.

Liftoff footage via 大漠问天 and 我们的太空 on WeChat.

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Check out previous Long March 12 series launches

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What is the Long March 12B?

This section is for those less familiar with China’s Long March series of launch vehicles.

The Long March 12B is a two-stage partially reusable launch vehicle operated by the China Aerospace Science and Technology Commercial Launch Vehicle Group Co Ltd (中国航天科技集团商业火箭有限公司), with support from the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology and the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology. Both stages burn rocket-grade kerosene and liquid oxygen as propellants.

The Long March 12B’s payload capacity is expected to be as follows:

• Up to 20,000 kilograms to low Earth orbit.

• Up to 15,000 kilograms into a 500-kilometer sun-synchronous orbit.

The Long March 12B Y1 vehicle sat on its launch pad the night before its debut mission. | Image: China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation

Powering the first-stage of the launch vehicle are nine YF-102R engines, each generating 91 tons of thrust, for a total of 819 tons. It’s second-stage is powered by a vacuum-optimized YF-102R engine, generating around 100 tons of thrust.

To facilitate reuse of the first-stage, a set of engines is lit during re-entry, followed by a few being lit again for landing on a drone ship or landing pad. Enabling a soft touchdown are four landing legs at the base of the first-stage booster, while four grid fins at the top control descent during unpowered flight.

The two stages have a diameter of 4.37 meters, and the Long March 12B stands 72 meters tall on its launch pad, with a fairing that is 5.2 meters in diameter and split into two halves.

With current existing facilities, the Long March 12B can perform missions from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center and the Wenchang Space Launch Site.

The Long March 12B Y1 vehicle being transported to its launch pad atop of a transporter-erector between its Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center facilities. | Image: China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation

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1. So far, 72 out of 324.

2. As was done for the Long March 12A and LandSpace’s Zhuque-3.