The Long March 6 () or Chang Zheng 6 as in

pinyin Hanyu Pinyin, or simply pinyin, officially the Chinese Phonetic Alphabet, is the most common romanization system for Standard Chinese. ''Hanyu'' () literally means 'Han Chinese, Han language'—that is, the Chinese language—while ''pinyin' ...

, abbreviated LM 6 for export or CZ 6 within China, is a Chinese liquid-fuelled

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 ...

of the Long March family, which was developed by the

China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) is a main contractor for the Chinese space program. It is state-owned and has subsidiaries which design, develop and manufacture a range of spacecraft, launch vehicles, and ground equ ...

(CASC) and the

Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology The Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology (SAST) is a Chinese space agency and subordinate of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), it is referred to as ''The Eighth Academy'' of CASC. The agency was established in Augu ...

(SAST). The rocket was developed in the 2000s, and made its maiden flight in 2015. As one of the new generation rocket family, the Long March 6 was designed to be a light capacity, "high-speed response" rocket, complementing the heavy lift

Long March 5 Long March 5 (LM-5; zh, s=长征五号 , p=Chángzhēng wǔ hào) or Changzheng 5 (CZ-5), also known by its nickname "''Pang-Wu''" (胖五, "''Fat-Five''"), is a Chinese heavy-lift launch vehicle developed by the China Academy of Launch Vehicl ...

and the mid-heavy lift

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 ...

rocket families. It is capable of placing at least of payload into a

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 ...

. The first stage of the Long March 6 was derived from the

booster rocket A booster is a rocket (or rocket engine) used either in the first stage of a multistage rocket, multistage launch vehicle or in parallel with longer-burning sustainer engine, sustainer rockets to augment the space vehicle's takeoff thrust and p ...

s being developed for the

rocket. It is powered by a

YF-100 The YF-100 is a Chinese liquid rocket engine burning LOX and kerosene in an oxidizer-rich staged combustion cycle. Development of the engine began in the 2000s, along with its sibling, the smaller YF-115, which would power the upper stages of ...

engine, which generates of thrust from burning

kerosene Kerosene, or paraffin, is a combustibility, combustible hydrocarbon liquid which is derived from petroleum. It is widely used as a fuel in Aviation fuel, aviation as well as households. Its name derives from the Greek (''kērós'') meaning " ...

and

LOX Lox is a fillet of brined salmon, which may be smoked. Lox is frequently served on a bagel with cream cheese, and often garnished with tomato, onion, cucumber, and capers. Etymology The American English word ''lox'' is a borrowing of Yiddi ...

rocket fuel Rocket propellant is used as reaction mass ejected from a rocket engine to produce thrust. The energy required can either come from the propellants themselves, as with a chemical rocket, or from an external source, as with ion engines. Overvi ...

and

oxidiser An oxidizing agent (also known as an oxidant, oxidizer, electron recipient, or electron acceptor) is a substance in a redox chemical reaction that gains or " accepts"/"receives" an electron from a (called the , , or ''electron donor''). In ot ...

. This was the first flight of the new engine design. An enlarged variant, the

Long March 6A The Long March 6A () or Chang Zheng 6A as in pinyin, abbreviated LM 6A for export or CZ 6A within China, is a Chinese medium-lift launch vehicle in the Long March family, which was developed by the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporati ...

, which has four strap-on solid boosters, an elongated stage one, a new stage two with the same diameter as the first stage, and a payload capacity of at least 4000 kg to

, made its maiden flight on 29 March 2022. A further iteration named the

Long March 6C The Long March 6C (CZ-6C) () is a Chinese two-stage-to-orbit liquid-fueled launch vehicle designed and manufactured by Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology, a subsidiary of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation. The rocket is a ...

with a slightly shorter length than the 6A and without the four strap-on solid boosters had its successful maiden launch on 7 May 2024.

Launch statistics

List of launches

Lists of launches for the related

and

can be found in their respective Wikipedia pages. Long March 6 at IAC 2018

References

{{Expendable launch systems Long March (rocket family) Spacecraft launched in 2015 2015 in spaceflight 2015 in China Vehicles introduced in 2015

Launch statistics

List of launches

See also

References