Long March 8 launches 12th Qianfan batch from Hainan commercial spaceport
Summary: On June 5, 2026 at 14:34 Beijing time (06:34 UTC), a Long March 8 rocket lifted off from the Hainan Commercial Spaceport and successfully placed the 12th group of Qianfan polar-orbit satellites into the预定 orbit. The mission marks the first time the Hainan commercial spaceport has supported a Qianfan constellation launch, and comes less than 24 hours after the 11th batch flew from Taiyuan on a Long March 6 modified on June 4.
The Long March 8 used in this mission is the baseline variant, developed by the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT, the First Academy of CASC). The rocket family was designed primarily for sun-synchronous and low-Earth orbit commercial missions, with a maiden flight in 2020. Variants including Long March 8A and Long March 8 modified have since joined the family. The Hainan Commercial Spaceport, located in Wenchang on the island province of Hainan, is China's first launch site dedicated to commercial missions; pad 1 and pad 2 support the Long March 8 and Long March 12 families respectively.
With this 12th batch in orbit, the Qianfan constellation continues to grow toward its planned scale of more than 14,000 low-Earth-orbit satellites for global broadband coverage. Just one day earlier, on June 4 at 19:39 Beijing time, a Long March 6 modified rocket launched 18 satellites of the 11th Qianfan group from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in Shanxi Province. Two launches from two different spaceports within roughly 19 hours signal an accelerated cadence for the constellation build-out.