Long March 11

CALT plans to launch four to five Long March 11 solid rockets during 2022.

Long March 11 last flew in 2020-12-01, launching the Gravitational Wave High-energy Electromagnetic Counterpart All-sky Monitor (GECAM) pair of satellites.

CASC and its subordinate entities have light-lift solid rockets including Smart Dragon-1, which is capable of sending 150 kg to 700-km Sun-synchronous orbit, and Long March 11, which is capable of sending 350 kg to 700-km Sun-synchronous orbit.

The China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT) had plans to conduct two or three sea launches of Long March 11 during 2021, but none took place.

A new eastern spaceport was established near Haiyang City in Shandong province to facilitate sea-based launches of solid Long March 11 rockets and commercial launch vehicles from China Rocket.

China is constructing a new spaceport in Haiyang City, Shandong province to facilitate sea launches of Long March 11 and commercial Jielong rockets and to support rocket and satellite development.

The Long March 11 rocket that launched the GECAM satellite pair on 2020-12-09 was assembled at Haiyang.

CAS Space’s planned solid launcher would be China’s largest solid rocket by payload capacity, exceeding CASC’s Long March 11 and the Kuaizhou-11 operated under CASIC.

Long March 11 rockets and Jielong rockets developed by China Rocket Co. Ltd. will be produced at a new production facility on the coast of Shandong province for sea launches.

CASC also produces a solid rocket, the Long March 11, which can launch from inland sites and from a specially developed sea platform.

A Long March 11 solid rocket launched from a platform in the Yellow Sea on 2020-09-14 Eastern and placed nine Jilin-1 Gaofen remote sensing satellites into orbit.

China launched a Long March 11 rocket from an ocean platform in the Yellow Sea on 2020-09-15.

China carried out its first sea launch in 2019-06-01 using a Long March 11 rocket.

CASC launches China’s government and military payloads and operates the Long March 11 solid-fuel launcher that entered service in 2015.

China has tested sea launches with the Long March 11 solid rocket, which has only light lift capability.

Kepler arranged the Soyuz launch through Innovative Space Logistics, the Dutch launch broker that arranged Kepler’s first two prototypes to launch in 2018 on a Chinese Long March 11 and an Indian PSLV.

A solid-propellant Long March 11 launched five Zhuhai-1 remote sensing satellites into roughly 500-kilometer Sun-synchronous orbit on 2019-09-19.

CASC will work with the city of Yantai in Shandong province to develop a port to facilitate frequent sea-based launches for the Long March 11.