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Long March 8 () is an orbital
An upgraded version of the Long March 8, the Long March 8A (), has successfully debuted on February 11, 2025 with increased capability of up to 7 tonnes to a 700 km altitude
launch vehicle
A launch vehicle is typically a rocket-powered vehicle designed to carry a payload (a crewed spacecraft or satellites) from Earth's surface or lower atmosphere to outer space. The most common form is the ballistic missile-shaped multistage ...
developed by the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology
The China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT) is a major state-owned civilian and military space launch vehicle manufacturer in China and one of the major launch service providers in the world. CALT is a subsidiary of the larger China A ...
to launch up to 5000 kg to a 700 km altitude Sun-synchronous orbit
A Sun-synchronous orbit (SSO), also called a heliosynchronous orbit, is a nearly polar orbit around a planet, in which the satellite passes over any given point of the planet's surface at the same local mean solar time. More technically, it is ...
(SSO). The rocket is based on the Long March 7
The Long March 7 (), or Chang Zheng 7 in pinyin, abbreviated LM-7 for export or CZ-7 within China, originally Long March 2F/H or Chang Zheng 2F/H, nicknamed Bingjian (), is a Chinese liquid-fuelled launch vehicle of the Long March family, dev ...
with its first stage and two boosters, along with the existing liquid hydrogen burning third stage of the Long March 3A
The Long March 3A (), also known as the Chang Zheng 3A, CZ-3A and LM-3A, is a Chinese orbital carrier rocket design. It is a 3-stage rocket, and is usually used to place communications satellites and Beidou navigation satellites into geosynch ...
/ 3B/ 3C and 7A as its second stage. The boosters are omitted in the "core only" variant that first flew on its second launch in February 2022.
A planned future launch vehicle variant of the Long March 8 will be partially reusable by featuring a combined booster recovery of the first stage and the boosters as a single unit.
The maiden flight of the Long March 8 was launched on 22 December 2020 from the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site
The Wenchang Space Launch Site ( zh, 文昌航天发射场, links=no) is a rocket launch site located in Wenchang on the island of Hainan, in China.
Formally a suborbital test center, it currently serves as China's southernmost spaceport. ...
.
CZ-8A variant
An upgraded version of the Long March 8, the Long March 8A (), has successfully debuted on February 11, 2025 with increased capability of up to 7 tonnes to a 700 km altitude sun-synchronous orbit
A Sun-synchronous orbit (SSO), also called a heliosynchronous orbit, is a nearly polar orbit around a planet, in which the satellite passes over any given point of the planet's surface at the same local mean solar time. More technically, it is ...
. It implements a larger 3.35 meters diameter liquid hydrogen/liquid oxygen second stage, coupled with 2 upgraded version of the YF-75D
The YF-75D is a cryogenic rocket engine burning liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen in a closed expander cycle. It is China's third generation of upper stage cryogenic propellant engine, after the YF-73 and the YF-75. It is used in a dual engine ...
engines (known as the YF-75H) with increased thrust to 10 tonnes each through measures such as increased turbopump speeds. The Long March 8A can also use a larger 5.2 meters diameter payload fairing.
Launch statistics
List of launches
See also
*List of Long March launches (2025-2029)
This is a list of launches made by the Long March (rocket family), Long March rocket family. Launch attempts aborted or scrubbed before liftoff, including ones such as the attempt to launch a Long March 2E with Optus (satellite), Optus B1 on 22 ...
* Long March 9
Long March 9 (, LM-9 or Changzheng 9, CZ-9) is a Chinese Super heavy-lift launch vehicle, super-heavy carrier rocket that is currently under development. It is the ninth iteration of the Long March (rocket family), Long March rocket family, named ...
* Comparison of orbital launchers families
This article compares different orbital launcher families (launchers which are significantly different from other members of the same 'family' have separate entries). The article is organized into two tables: the first contains a list of currentl ...
* Comparison of orbital launch systems
This comparison of orbital launch systems lists the attributes of all current and future individual rocket configurations designed to reach orbit. A first list contains rockets that are operational or have attempted an orbital flight attempt as o ...
* Expendable launch system
An expendable launch system (or expendable launch vehicle/ELV) is a launch vehicle that can be launched only once, after which its components are destroyed during reentry or impact with Earth, or discarded in space. ELVs typically consist of s ...
* Lists of rockets
There are several different types of rockets. The following articles contain lists of rockets by type:
* List of missiles
* List of orbital launch systems
* List of sounding rockets
* List of military rockets
* List of rocket stages
* List of ca ...
References
{{Orbital launch systems Vehicles introduced in 2020 2020 in China 2020 in spaceflight Long March (rocket family)