At morning 23rd April 2025 Beijing time CNSA –China National Space Administration, the Long March 5B Yao-7 carrier rocket from the Wenchang Space Launch Site in Hainan Province, China, People’s Republic of China., On the morning the “Long March 5B” Yao-7 carrier rocket and satellite assembly were vertically transferred from the vertical assembly and test plant to the launch tower on a mobile launch platform, and the launch mission preparations entered the final stage
On the morning of April 23, 2025 Beijing time (hereinafter referred to as Beijing time), at the Wenchang Space Launch Center on the northeast coast of Hainan Island, the “Long March 5B” Yao 7 carrier rocket satellite-rocket combination was transferred from the vertical assembly and test plant to the launch position, and the “Long March 5B” sixth launch mission entered the refueling and launch phase.
The Long March 5B/Long March 5B (LM-5B) is a large cryogenic liquid carrier rocket developed by the First Academy of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation. It adopts a one-and-a-half-stage configuration, with the core stage and four boosters bundled together. The rocket is developed based on the basic model of the Long March 5 series, the Long March 5, and is developed by removing the core stage and making adaptive improvements on the basis of the Long March 5. It is the only large carrier rocket in the world that adopts a one-and-a-half-stage configuration.
The Long March 5B rocket is 53.657 meters high, with a core diameter of 5 meters and a booster diameter of 3.35 meters. It is equipped with a large fairing with a diameter of 5.2 meters and a length of 20.5 meters, which is the highest and largest fairing in service in China. Its takeoff mass is about 849 tons and its takeoff thrust is about 1,074 tons. Its near-Earth orbit (LEO) capacity with a perigee of 200 kilometers, an apogee of 400 kilometers and an inclination of 19.5 degrees exceeds 25 tons. In Asia, the Long March 5B is the rocket with the strongest near-Earth transport capacity in service.
The Long March 5B is a large-scale carrier rocket developed to support the construction of a manned space station. Since its successful maiden flight on May 5, 2020, the first four missions of the rocket have all been manned space engineering launch missions. After completing the launch of the three main cabins of the first phase of the Chinese space station project, the intensive launch missions of the Long March 5B to support the construction of the space station came to an end. In order to improve the efficiency of rocket model development, it can support other launch missions with large capacity and large space requirements, such as low-orbit constellation network launch missions. On December 16, 2024, the Long March 5B undertook a non-manned space launch mission for the first time, launching the first batch of 10 low-orbit networking satellites for China Star Network.
On August 6, 2024, the Long March 6A Yao 21 rocket carried out the launch mission of the Qianfan polar orbit 01 group of satellites (a total of 18 satellites), officially kicking off the launch of China’s giant low-orbit constellation intensive networking. During the low-orbit constellation intensive networking stage, tens of thousands of satellites are waiting to be launched, and launch vehicles with large capacity, high frequency and low cost are needed to provide launch support. At present, it will take some time for large-scale launch vehicles of commercial aerospace companies to be put into operation and form scale capacity. There is a huge gap in constellation networking capacity, and the “Long March 5B” with strong capacity and large carrying space can just solve the urgent problem.
It is expected that as early as the morning of April 29, at the 101 work station of the Wenchang Space Launch Center, the Long March 5B Yao-7 carrier rocket/Expedition 2 upper stage will carry out a multi-satellite launch mission, planning to send the satellites on board into polar orbit.
In this mission, the Long March 5B will continue to carry out the China Star Network network launch. In order to achieve direct delivery into orbit, the rocket will continue to be equipped with the Yuanzheng II upper stage. In the Yao-6 (5th launch) mission, the Long March 5B carrier rocket/Yuanzheng II upper stage carried out a multi-satellite launch on different orbits, sending 10 satellites into two orbital planes of the polar orbit.
The Yao-7 mission will be the first launch of the Long March 5 series rocket in 2025 and the third launch from the Wenchang Space Launch Center.
Images and visuals are from their Respectives CMS China Manned SpaceCNSA-China National Space Administration
