Third Beyond Low Earth Orbit Yaogan Satellite Launched [Long March 7A Y13]

A new remote sensing spacecraft will slowly pass over its targets on Earth below.

The Long March 7A Y13 vehicle blasting off from the Wenchang Space Launch Site on November 3rd 2025.

On November 3rd at 11:47 am China Standard Time (03:47 am Universal Coordinated Time), a Long March 7A blasted off from Launch Complex 201 at the Wenchang Space Launch Site, carrying a single spacecraft toward medium Earth orbit¹.

Riding atop of the rocket was Yaogan-46 (遥感四十六号卫星), another remote sensing satellite developed by the China Academy of Space Technology. Similar to the previous Yaogan spacecraft, also launched from Wenchang, it will reportedly be for land resource surveys, crop yield estimation, meteorology, hydrology, scientific experiments, as well as disaster prevention and relief efforts.

Yaogan-46 is the third of the Yaogan satellite series to be placed above low Earth orbit², following Yaogan-45 to medium Earth orbit in September 2025 and Yaogan-41 to geostationary orbit in December 2023. Orbiting higher allows the three Yaogan spacecraft to pass over and observe a target area slower at the expense of resolution due to their distance.

The patch of the Long March 7A Y13 launch mission.

In its post-launch blog post, the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology stated that it plans to continue optimizing the Long March 7A’s prelaunch preparations to meet a high-density launch cadence. That was alongside a mention of this being the rocket’s fourth flight of the year (March, May, September), alongside a single mission for the Long March 7.

With today’s launch, China has attempted sixty-nine orbital launches this year³, surpassing its record of sixty-eight attempts in 2024. With almost two full months left in the year, up to eighty launch attempts may occur.

Today’s mission was the 12th launch of a Long March 7A vehicle, the 22nd launch of the Long March 7 series, and the 605th launch of the Long March launch vehicle series. This was also the 69th launch from China in 2025.

Liftoff video via 我们的太空, SpaceLens云上天镜, and China航天 on Weibo.

Launch live stream replay via International Rocket Launches on YouTube.

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Check out the previous Long March 7A launch

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What is the Long March 7A?

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

The Long March 7A is the new-generation workhorse for beyond low Earth orbit missions, and was developed by the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology. This vehicle utilizes a three-and-a-half-stage design and is fuelled by rocket-grade kerosene and liquid oxygen in its boosters, first, and second stages long with liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen in the third-stage.

The payload capacity of the launch vehicle is currently as follows:

• 8,000+ kilograms to a medium Earth transfer orbit

• 7,000 kilograms to geostationary transfer orbit

• 5,500 kilograms to a 700-kilometer sun-synchronous orbit

• 5,000 kilograms to a trans-lunar trajectory

The Long March 7A Y13 vehicle during rollout from one of Wenchang’s vertical assembly buildings and heading toward Launch Complex 201 on October 31st.

The Long March 7A’s first stage is equipped with two YF-100 engines that produce 245 tons of thrust using rocket-grade kerosene and liquid oxygen, complemented by four boosters, each with a YF-100 engine generating 122 tons of thrust, resulting in a combined thrust of approximately 733 tons. The second stage is powered by four YF-115 engines, which together generate 72 tons of thrust using the same fuel combination. The third stage of the Long March 7A features two YF-75 engines, providing 17 tons of thrust by burning liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen.

On the launchpad, the Long March 7A stands at 60.13 meters tall and weighs 573,000 kilograms when fully fuelled. The first and second-stage have a diameter of 3.35 meters, the four boosters are 2.25 meters in diameter, and the third-stage has a diameter of 3 meters, while the fairing has a diameter of 4.2 meters.

So far the Long March 7A has only flown from the Wenchang Space Launch Site, on the east coast of Hainan province.

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1. The China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology detailed the Long March 7A’s medium Earth orbit payload capacity for today’s launch. It is a common practice to boast about the payload capacity for certain orbital regimes while sending a satellite into them.

2. A low Earth-orbiting spacecraft will reside between 160 and 2,000 kilometers above Earth.

3. With two failures. One of Expace’s Kuaizhou series and a Zhuque-2E from LandSpace.