The Long March 6 () or Chang Zheng 6 as in

pinyin Hanyu Pinyin (), often shortened to just pinyin, is the official romanization system for Standard Mandarin Chinese in China, and to some extent, in Singapore and Malaysia. It is often used to teach Mandarin, normally written in Chinese fo ...

, abbreviated LM 6 for export or CZ 6 within China, is a Chinese liquid-fuelled

launch vehicle A launch vehicle or carrier rocket is a rocket designed to carry a payload ( spacecraft or satellites) from the Earth's surface to outer space. Most launch vehicles operate from a launch pads, supported by a launch control center and sys ...

of the Long March family, which was developed by the

China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, or CASC, is the main contractor for the Chinese space program. It is state-owned and has subsidiaries which design, develop and manufacture a range of spacecraft, launch vehicles, strategi ...

(CASC) and the

Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology The Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology (SAST) is a Chinese space agency and subordinate of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, or CASC, is the main contractor for ...

(SAST). The rocket was developed in the 2000s, and made its maiden flight in 2015. As one of the new generation rocket family, the Long March 6 was designed to be a light capacity, "high-speed response" rocket, complementing the heavy lift

Long March 5 Long March 5 (LM-5; zh, s=长征五号 , p=Chángzhēng wǔ hào), or Changzheng 5 (CZ-5), and also by its nickname "''Pang-Wu''" (胖五, "''Fat-Five''"), is a Chinese heavy-lift launch vehicle developed by the China Academy of Launch Vehic ...

and the mid-heavy lift

Long March 7 , stages = {{plainlist, * CZ-7: Two * CZ-7A: Three {{cite web, url=https://www.space.com/china-space-program-new-long-march-rockets.html, last=Jones, first=Andrew, title=China prepares to launch new rockets as part of push to boost spac ...

rocket families. It is capable of placing at least of payload into a

Sun-synchronous orbit A Sun-synchronous orbit (SSO), also called a heliosynchronous orbit, is a nearly polar orbit around a planet, in which the satellite passes over any given point of the planet's surface at the same local mean solar time. More technically, it is ...

. The first stage of the Long March 6 was derived from the

booster rocket A booster rocket (or engine) is either the first stage of a multistage launch vehicle, or else a shorter-burning rocket used in parallel with longer-burning sustainer rockets to augment the space vehicle's takeoff thrust and payload capabil ...

s being developed for the

rocket. It is powered by a YF-100 engine, which generates of thrust from burning

kerosene Kerosene, paraffin, or lamp oil is a combustible hydrocarbon liquid which is derived from petroleum. It is widely used as a fuel in aviation as well as households. Its name derives from el, κηρός (''keros'') meaning " wax", and was re ...

and LOX as

rocket fuel Rocket propellant is the reaction mass of a rocket. This reaction mass is ejected at the highest achievable velocity from a rocket engine to produce thrust. The energy required can either come from the propellants themselves, as with a chemical ...

and

oxidiser An oxidizing agent (also known as an oxidant, oxidizer, electron recipient, or electron acceptor) is a substance in a redox chemical reaction that gains or " accepts"/"receives" an electron from a (called the , , or ). In other words, an oxid ...

. This was the first flight of the new engine design. An enlarged variant, the

Long March 6A The Long March 6A () or Chang Zheng 6A as in pinyin, abbreviated LM 6A for export or CZ 6A within China, is a Chinese launch vehicle of the Long March family, which was developed by the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) a ...

, which has four strap-on solid boosters, an elongated stage one, a new stage two with the same diameter as the first stage, and a payload capacity of at least 4000 kg to

, made its maiden flight on 29 March 2022.

Launch statistics

List of launches

References

{{Expendable launch systems Long March (rocket family) Spacecraft launched in 2015 2015 in spaceflight 2015 in China Vehicles introduced in 2015

Launch statistics

List of launches

See also

References