Ninth Overall Qianfan Group Delivered Into Orbit From Wenchang [Long March 8 Y8]
Now back into routine deployments, eighteen more Qianfan satellites have reached low Earth orbit thanks to a Long March 8.
Departing from the Commercial Launch Pad 1 at the Wenchang Commercial Space Launch Site at 22:42 pm China Standard Time (14:42 pm Universal Coordinated Time) on May 17th, a Long March 8 flew towards sun-synchronous orbit carrying a new group of connectivity satellites.
Atop of the vehicle was a new ‘Polar Group’ for the Qianfan constellation, as its ninth overall, with eighteen satellites reportedly being 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 has brought the constellation’s total spacecraft count up to 162.
This launch was also the second deployment of Qianfan satellites this week, as part of a resumption of routine flights following issues in 2025.
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 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 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.
According to China Central Television (中国中央电视台), the Long March 8 series of launch vehicles, including the Long March 8 and 8A, is set to fly fifteen times in total this year, for eleven more flights over the next six and a half months. The China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology has said previously that mission preparation times have been significantly reduced to enable a high flight rate, which was pursued through the recent May Day holidays while maintaining strict quality control standards.
Today’s launch was the 6th launch of the Long March 8, the 14th launch of the Long March 8 series, and the 643rd launch of the Long March launch vehicle series. This was also the 31st launch from China in 2026.
Liftoff footage via 垣信卫星 on WeChat.
Launch livestream via ThatSpaceDogeGuy on YouTube.
Check out the previous Long March 8 series launch
What is the Long March 8?
This section is for those less familiar with China’s Long March series of launch vehicles.
The Long March 8 is poised to be a low Earth orbit workhorse for missions flying from Wenchang, with it being developed by the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology. This vehicle utilizes a two-and-a-half-stage design and is fueled by rocket-grade kerosene and liquid oxygen in its first-stage and boosters along with liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen in the second-stage.
The payload capacity of the launch vehicle is currently as follows:
8,100 kilograms to low Earth orbit
5,000 kilograms to a 700-kilometer sun-synchronous orbit
2,800 kilograms to geostationary transfer orbit
1,500 kilograms to a trans-lunar trajectory
The Long March 8’s boosters and first-stage are powered by YF-100 engines, with two engines on the first stage and one on each of the two boosters, generating a combined thrust of 490 tons at liftoff. The second-stage is equipped with two YF-75 engines which produce 17 tons of thrust.
On the launchpad, the Long March 8 stands at 50.34 meters tall and weighs 356,000 kilograms when fully fuelled. The first-stage has a diameter of 3.35 meters, the two boosters have a diameter of 2.25 meters, while the second-stage has a diameter of 3 meters, and the fairing has a believed diameter of 4.2 meters.
So far the Long March 8 has only flown from the Wenchang Space Launch Site and the Wenchang Commercial Space Launch Site, on the east coast of Hainan province.
