Three Satellites, One Tall Rocket [Long March 6A Y9]

A rare, tall Long March 6A has reached orbit.

The Long March 6A Y9 vehicle clearing Launch Complex 9A’s tower.

A Long March 6A blasted off from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center’s Launch Complex 9A on May 11th at 21:27 pm China Standard Time (13:17 pm Universal Coordinated Time). Onboard today’s launch into polar orbit were three satellites.

The three satellites are part of Yaogan-40 Group-02 (遥感四十号02组) and were developed by the China Academy of Space Technology. Once operating in orbit, the three satellites are expected to perform electromagnetic environment detection of areas of Earth below, along with related technology tests.

The mission patch for the Long March 6A Y9 mission.

Today’s Long March 6A mission continues operational moves toward a high launch rate of the rocket, being just twenty-two days after the last, with the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation saying on behalf of the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology that launch teams have optimized preparation processes to “2+12 days” for any changes needed to launch plans. As such, like the previous vehicle, today’s first-stage and boosters could have supported a different mission if necessary.

In keeping with the last Long March 6A, today’s mission also has a grey band on the second-stage, which is believed to be for keeping propellant warm over an extended duration, similar to SpaceX’s mission extension kit. Additionally, a fairing extension, also present on the last Yaogan-40 mission, was in use again to roughly double the length of the payload fairing.

The Long March 6A Y9 vehicle on the launch pad, the fairing extension is from the grey band to the base of the regular fairing.

Today’s launch was the 12th mission for the Long March 6A, the 234th Long March launch vehicle from the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology, and the and the 574th launch of the Long March launch vehicle series. This was also the 25th launch from China in 2025.

Launch video via 摆渡人 and 万古VS长青 on Douyin.

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Check out the previous Long March 6A launch

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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 Long March 6A Y9 vehicle at Launch Complex 9A ahead of its mission.

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.

Part of the Long March 6A Y9’s fairing heading to the launch pad.

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