The Long March 8A is scheduled to make its maiden flight in January 2025Long March 8A: The future star of the main rocket for medium and low orbitThe new rocket Long March 8A carrier rocket (referred to as "Long March 8A"), developed by the First Academy and invested by China Rocket Company, made its debut at this air show. As a medium-sized liquid carrier rocket, "Long March 8A" is currently under intensive development. The carrying capacity of "Long March 8A" in the 700-kilometer sun-synchronous orbit reaches 7 tons, and it is suitable for two diameter fairings of 4.2 meters and 5.2 meters. It has the characteristics of "advanced performance, low cost, high reliability, and rapid launch". It is suitable for the launch of multiple stations such as Wenchang 201 in Hainan and Commercial Launch Station 1. It is one of the main rockets for medium and low orbit in my country in the future. On September 4, the "Long March 8A" joint training rocket successfully completed the launch site training mission at the No. 1 launch station of the Hainan Commercial Space Launch Site, and is scheduled to make its first flight in January 2025.
Heading to the launch site! The Chang-8A-Y1 rocket is loaded on a ship and will make its maiden flight early next yearOn December 9, the Long March 8A-1 carrier rocket (referred to as the "Long March 8A-1 rocket") was successfully loaded and headed for the Wenchang Space Launch Center in China. As the main rocket for my country's medium and low orbits in the future, the Long March 8A rocket will carry out its first flight mission in January next year."The Long March 8A rocket is specially developed based on the Long March 8 rocket for the future medium and low orbit giant constellation network launch needs." Song Zhengyu, chief designer of the Long March 8 model, introduced that "the Long March 8A rocket has the characteristics of advanced performance, low cost, high reliability and rapid launch. This maiden flight mission marks the official debut of the Long March 8A rocket, which will make important contributions to my country's low-orbit satellite network and other tasks. It is of great significance and cannot be missed.""The Long March 8A rocket embodies the hard work and efforts of the entire team. It took 28 months to develop. So far, 44 large-scale ground tests have been completed and many key technologies have been mastered." Xiao Yun, chief commander of the Long March 8 model, said, "The model team has the confidence and ability to complete this launch mission."Before loading and shipping, the General Design Department of the Rocket Academy, the Material Center, the Beijing Institute of Space Launch Technology, the Tianjin Aerospace Long March Rocket Manufacturing Co., Ltd. and other relevant units worked closely together to efficiently complete the rocket body and standard container packing. At the same time, the Long March 8 model project office also organized the status monitoring and safety protection of the rocket body to ensure that everything is ready.Subsequently, all members of the Chang-8A Yao-1 rocket launch team will continue to thoroughly study and implement the spirit of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and the Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, as well as the important speech of General Secretary Xi Jinping, cooperate with each other and work closely together, treat every detail with a rigorous, cautious and practical attitude, implement the spirit of the ninth working conference of the group company, complete related work with high quality, concentrate their hearts and minds, and work together to ensure the successful completion of the first flight mission.
Despite the new NOTAM, there are rumours of the launch being delayed, probably to the 1st half of February.
