New Long March series rockets to debut soon

China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp, the country's dominant space contractor, plans to conduct the maiden flights of two carrier rocket models in the coming weeks. Ma Tao, deputy head of spacecraft operations at the State-owned conglomerate, said that the Long March 8A's debut flight is scheduled to take place in January at the new Hainan International Commercial Aerospace Launch Center in Wenchang, Hainan province. According to the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology, a CASC subsidiary in Beijing, the Long March 8A can use two types of payload fairing — a diameter of 4.2 meters and of 5.2 meters — and is able to transport spacecraft with a combined weight of 7 metric tons to a typical sun-synchronous orbit with an altitude of 700 kilometers. The Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology, also a CASC subsidiary and developer of the Long March 12, said the rocket model is more than 60 meters tall and is capable of sending at least 12 tons of payloads to a low-Earth orbit or 6 tons to a sun-synchronous orbit about 700 kilometers above Earth. In addition to the two mid-size models, CASC is also showcasing two larger types of rockets, the Long March 9 and Long March 10A, both of which are under research and development at the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology.