WENCHANG: China late on Tuesday launched a Long March-8 rocket from the Hainan commercial spacecraft launch site, sending 18 internet satellites into space in the latest expansion of its low-Earth orbit communications network. The rocket lifted off at 9:32 p.m. Beijing time from the coastal site in Hainan province and successfully placed the payloads into their preset orbit. The satellites were identified as the seventh batch of networking satellites for the Qianfan Constellation.
Tuesday’s mission added to the rollout of Qianfan, a satellite internet constellation also known as Thousand Sails that began deployments in 2024. Chinese authorities said the latest payloads were inserted as planned, continuing a sequence of launches tied to the network’s buildout. The mission centered on internet satellites rather than a mixed payload, underscoring the growing tempo of dedicated launches for communications constellations from China’s southern launch facilities.
The Long March-8 is part of a rocket family used for low-Earth orbit and sun-synchronous orbit missions, and Tuesday’s operation marked another flight from the commercial launch complex in Wenchang. Official reports said the mission was the 636th launch of the Long March series, extending the record of the country’s main launch vehicle family as it supports civil, scientific and satellite deployment missions across a widening range of space programs.
Network buildout accelerates
The launch came less than a month after another mission from the same site on March 13, when a Long March-8A rocket carried a new group of low-orbit internet satellites into space. An earlier Long March-8A launch from Hainan on Jan. 13 also deployed another internet satellite group. Those flights, together with Tuesday’s mission, show a sustained run of internet satellite launches from Wenchang in the opening months of 2026.
Qianfan’s first batch of 18 satellites was launched in August 2024 from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in Shanxi province, beginning deployment of a Chinese low-Earth orbit broadband network. The constellation is linked to Shanghai Spacecom Satellite Technology and forms part of a wider push to expand satellite-based internet capacity. Tuesday’s launch continued that deployment sequence with another set of satellites assigned to networking duties in orbit.
Commercial site gains prominence
Low-Earth orbit internet systems are designed to deliver communications services from satellites operating much closer to Earth than traditional geostationary spacecraft, helping reduce signal delay. China has increased the pace of such launches as more satellites are assigned to broadband and data transmission roles. The use of the Hainan commercial spacecraft launch site for Tuesday’s mission reflected the site’s growing role in handling repeated deployment flights for internet satellite programs.
Officials did not disclose additional details in the initial launch bulletin such as the satellites’ orbital altitude, individual spacecraft specifications or a timetable for service activation. The confirmed outcome was a successful insertion of 18 satellites into preset orbit aboard a Long March-8 rocket from Wenchang, adding a new batch to the Qianfan network. Tuesday’s operation was the 636th mission of the Long March rocket family – By Content Syndication Services.