China’s Record Space Launch Pace: A New Frontier in Broadband and Weather Monitoring

China in 2025 achieved 90 orbital launches, setting a new national record. The latest two launches took place on December 25 and 26 using Long March rocket family, deploying satellites for the Guowang broadband constellation and the Fengyun-4C weather satellite. On December 25, the Long March 8A launched from the commercial Hainan launch site on the namesake island. The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) confirmed the successful deployment of the 17th Guowang satellite group. The US Space Command subsequently tracked nine satellites in orbits at approximately 910 km with an inclination of 50°. Following this launch, there are 136 Guowang satellites in orbit out of a planned 13,000. The first batch of 10 satellites was launched a year earlier by the Long March 5B. The program’s immediate target is to increase the constellation to 400 satellites by 2027.

The Long March 8A features the same first stage and boosters as the 2020 version, but with a new second stage measuring 3.35 meters in diameter using hydrogen-oxygen engines. This enabled the use of a payload fairing with a diameter of 5.2 meters. With a length of 50.5 meters, the rocket can deploy approximately 7,000 kg into a sun-synchronous orbit at 700 km altitude. The Christmas launch marked the sixth for the expendable Long March 8A, aimed at speeding up the deployment of Guowang, including ramping up production of YF-100 engines using kerosene and liquid oxygen. This launch was the ninth in 2025 from the two launch pads at the Hainan commercial launch site. Next year, launch pads No. 3 and No. 4 are expected to be operational, accommodating both Long March rockets and new commercial carriers, increasing launch frequency.

The next day, on December 26, the Long March 3B launched from the Xichang spaceport in Sichuan province, deploying the Fengyun-4C satellite into a geostationary transfer orbit. The spacecraft has a mass of 5,300 kg and will occupy a position in the geostationary belt, complementing the previously launched Fengyun-4A and Fengyun-4B. Fengyun-4C is equipped with a suite of instruments for short-term typhoon and heavy rain forecasts, as well as space weather monitoring. The satellite employs a ‘thruster on a stick’ technology – an electric engine for orbit correction mounted on a boom away from the main body. Its operational life is expected to last until the mid-2030s. These two launches were China’s 89th and 90th orbital space launches in 2025, significantly surpassing the previous record set in 2024, when 68 launch attempts were made. More launches with Long March 4B and Long March 7A rockets are scheduled by the end of the year from the Jiuquan and Wenchang spaceports respectively.