"You're taller than I expected." [Long March 6A Y7]

This post was originally published on July 5th 2024 on Ko-fi.

The Long March 6A Y7 vehicle lifting off from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center.

"So it begins", the long-rumored 'high density' launch schedule for the second half of 2024 has started with the launch of a Long March 6A. The Long March 6A Y7 vehicle lifted off from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center at 06:49 am China Standard Time on July 5th, or 22:49 pm Universal Coordinated Time on July 4th, headed for a sun-synchronus orbit carrying two satellites onboard.

Atop of the Long March 6A were two Tianhui-5 satellites for the 02 group, group 01 was launched back at the beginning of November 2023.

For the 6A line of launch vehicles, this was the sixth launch, despite being marked at Y7, continuing the one-hundred percent success rate for launch missions. A Y6 mission for the Long March 6A is still yet to fly. For the wider Long March series this was the 527th launch mission. And for the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology it was their 212th launch mission.

The Tianhui-5 02 patch (left) and the Long March 6A Y7 launch mission patch (right).

The two Tianhui-5 satellites are believed to be for use in land resource surveys, geographic mapping, scientific experiments, and 'other' purposes. Both groups of Tianhui-5 satellites are expected to work in tandem to provide more accurate data about Earth.

This launch of the Long March 6A most notably flew a new fairing, an elongated version of its 4.2-meter diameter fairing. The reasoning for the new longer fairing is unclear but this could be a precursor test to a rumored 5.2-meter diameter fairing, that could fly as early as this August for the first batch of G60 satellites, for one of China's three mega constellation plans. However, the lengthened fairing may also be up for use in the August G60 launch.

The Long March 6A Y3 vehicle (left) with the normal length fairing and the Long March 6A Y7 vehicle (right) with the elongated fairing.

The Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology may have also been subtly throwing shade at Space Pioneer, after their recent accident at Gongyi, through the post-launch WeChat/Weixin post. SAST did this by saying that "team members always carried out various tasks with a full mental state" and "so as to concentrate on the work and strive for excellence in quality control" along with "Through repeated quality control and re-confirmation, the test data analysis responsibilities were fully implemented to ensure that the test The project is fully covered, no abnormal data is missed".

Part of the Tianhui-5 team outside of the launch mission control center for the Y7 mission.

The Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology's team for the Y7 mission outside of the launch mission control center.

So far two launches of the Long March 6A have occurred in 2024 with at least two more planned. For China to achieve its goals of one-hundred launches this year, sixty-nine (nice) more launches need to occur, for a launch every 2.79 days. The total number of state-owned and commercial launches that will make up this number remains to be seen.