Long March 2

The official statement identified the launch vehicle as the Long March 2F (LM-2F).

The Long March 2F has only flown from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, located in the west of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and the north of Gansu province.

The spaceplane is making a fourth flight on a Long March 2F launch vehicle.

A Long March 2F vehicle was scheduled for a possible liftoff from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center around February 7th according to pre-launch notices.

The third Reusable Experimental Spacecraft mission began on December 14, 2023, with a Long March 2F/T launch from Jiuquan.

The Long March 2F/T 'T' variant uses a 4.2-meter-wide fairing that was previously used for Tiangong-1 and Tiangong-2 space stations and modified to carry a spaceplane.

The Reusable Experimental Spacecraft first launched on September 4, 2020, on a Long March 2F/T from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center into low Earth orbit.

The Long March 2F launch vehicle had a next flight expected in April for the Shenzhou-23 mission with the hardware delivered in recent weeks.

China’s Reusable Experimental Spacecraft (可重复使用试验航天器) is currently the only publicly known payload for the Long March 2F/T 'T' variant.

The Long March 2F 'G' variant uses the Shenzhou spacecraft's abort system while the 'T' variant has an interchangeable payload attachment system atop the second stage.

The Long March 2F family includes a Shenzhou-launching 'G' variant and a cargo-carrying 'T' variant.

The Reusable Experimental Spacecraft’s second mission began on August 5, 2022, from Jiuquan on a Long March 2F/T.

The Long March 2C is operated by the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology for missions to low Earth and sun-synchronous orbits.

AlSat-3B successfully launched at 04:01 UTC on a Long March 2C (LM-2C) rocket.

The Long March 2C payload capacity is 3,850 kilograms to low Earth orbit.

The January 31, 2026 launch was the 86th flight of the Long March 2C.

China conducted a Long March 2C launch from the Jiuquan spaceport that orbited the AlSat 3A remote sensing satellite for Algeria.

The China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology reported that the January 31, 2026 mission followed seventeen days after the Long March 2C’s previous flight enabled by parallel launch preparations at Jiuquan.