Qianfan Jumps Back Ahead of Guowang in Satellite Count [Long March 6A Y25]
With its eleventh overall group deployed from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center, the Shanghai-supported constellation has a small lead over a state-backed effort.
Heading skyward on June 4th at 19:39 pm China Standard Time (11:39 am Universal Coordinated Time) from Launch Complex 9A at the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center, a Long March 6A flew into polar orbit with another group of connectivity satellites.
Those satellites, eighteen in number, were for the Qianfan constellation as its eleventh overall group, being manufactured by commercial space enterprise Genesat (格思航天), its fourth on contract. The launch of those satellites brings the constellation’s total spacecraft count up to 182, jumping back ahead of GuoWang’s (国网) state-backed 168 for the first time in over seven months.
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), aiming 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.
This deployment of Qianfan satellites has come from an acceleration after a return to routine deployments. That has seen three launches within the past month before today.
In a post-launch blog post, the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology shared that preparation efforts have been concentrated and accelerated, regarding testing and placing hardware on the launch pad, to enable this launch mission to take place twenty-four days after the last Long March 6A. The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation added that pre-flight work took place around rainy weather conditions, without mentioning if it caused a delay.
Today’s launch was the 24th mission for the Long March 6A, the 268th Long March vehicle from the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology, and the 648th launch of the Long March launch vehicle series. This was also the 36th launch from China in 2026.
Liftoff video via 我们的太空 and 垣信卫星 on WeChat.
Check out the previous Long March 6A launch
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 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.
So far, 74 out of 324.