Long March 6C | 7 satellites
China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation launched Long March 6C carrying 7 satellites from Launch Complex 9A, Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center, People's Republic of China at 2026-08-25 03:21:00Z. The launch flew and reached its intended orbit.
COUNTDOWN
FLIGHT PLAN
The window opened at 2026-08-25 03:15:00Z and closed at 2026-08-25 03:40:00Z. The launch vehicle successfully inserted its payload(s) into the target orbit(s).
FIELD KIT / OPTICS
Where to start if the plan is a real telescope in a real back garden.
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Celestron FirstScope 76 mm Tabletop Telescope
76 mm of aperture on a tabletop mount with nothing to align: put it on a step, point it, look. The entry point of the whole category — it comes with no finder, which is the trade — and enough scope to show lunar craters and Jupiter's four bright moons.
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Beginner Dobsonians
The category most experienced observers point a beginner at: aperture on a simple rocker mount, with no motors to fail. A starting point for browsing rather than a specific pick — compare 130 mm and 150 mm before buying.
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Beginner refractors
Lighter and quicker to set up than a Dobsonian, weaker on faint deep-sky objects. Worth browsing if the scope has to live in a cupboard and come out on a whim.
BROWSE opens an Amazon search, not a specific recommendation.
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MISSION BRIEF
Share ride of 7 satellites to sun-synchronous orbit, including the ham radio satellite BY70-4. Details TBD.
SOURCE: LAUNCH LIBRARY 2 // THE SPACE DEVS
LAUNCH CORRIDOR
- Due east
- The lowest orbit inclination a direct launch from here can reach — 38.9°, which is this pad’s own latitude. It also collects the most free speed from Earth’s rotation.
- Due south
- The polar and sun-synchronous corridor: 90° inclination, passing over both poles. It gets no help from Earth’s spin, which is why it costs more payload.
Drag the globe to turn it. The shading is the real terminator, and it moves.
A globe of the Earth centred on Launch Complex 9A at latitude 38.86 degrees north, longitude 111.58 degrees east. Two curved lines leave the pad. The solid gold line runs due east and marks the lowest orbital inclination a direct launch from this site can reach, 38.9 degrees, equal to the pad’s latitude of 38.9 degrees. The dashed cyan line runs due south and marks the polar corridor at 90 degrees inclination. The darkened part of the globe is the night side. Surface wind is blowing from 39°, at 5 km/h, shown as the cyan arrow at the pad.
LAUNCH SITE
Launch Complex 9A
Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center, People's Republic of China, China
OBSERVED 2026-08-28 03:15:00Z // OPEN-METEO (CC BY 4.0) // GENERAL CONDITIONS, NOT LAUNCH CRITERIA
Minimum direct inclination 39°. From 39° north of the equator, a direct ascent cannot enter an orbit inclined less than 39°, because an orbit of inclination i never passes over latitudes beyond ±i. Reaching an equatorial plane — what a geostationary transfer ultimately needs — therefore costs a plane change of 39° somewhere in the flight, while inclinations of 39° and above are available straight off the pad. The ground here is carried eastward at about 362 m/s (465 m/s at the equator, falling with the cosine of latitude), and a due-east launch keeps that head start.
DATUM WGS-84 // EQUIRECTANGULAR PROJECTION // ORBIT FIGURES DERIVED FROM THE PUBLISHED LATITUDE
PAD CONDITIONS
SURFACE WIND @ 10 M
5km/h
Blowing from the north-east, bearing 39 degrees
GUSTING
14km/h
Overcast
SOURCE: OPEN-METEO CC BY 4.0
The observed block is general weather for the coordinates of Launch Complex 9A, not launch-commit criteria. Those are written per mission by the operator and the range, cover conditions this forecast does not carry at all (electric fields, cloud layers aloft, winds through the vehicle’s own load limits), and are published only by the operator. Wind is a common reason countdowns stop for weather — that is general context, not a rule about this flight, and no number in this block is a threshold. Nothing here is a go or no-go call, and no operator figure was published for this attempt.
COMMON QUESTIONS
What time did Long March 6C · 7 satellites launch?
Long March 6C | 7 satellites lifted off at 2026-08-25 03:21:00Z, flown by China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation. The window opened at 2026-08-25 03:15:00Z and closed at 2026-08-25 03:40:00Z. The launch flew and reached its intended orbit.
Where can I watch Long March 6C · 7 satellites again?
No official webcast was published for Long March 6C | 7 satellites. Third-party recordings of the flight may exist, but China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation did not post a feed of its own.
What was Long March 6C · 7 satellites carrying?
Share ride of 7 satellites to sun-synchronous orbit, including the ham radio satellite BY70-4. Details TBD.
Where did Long March 6C · 7 satellites launch from?
Long March 6C | 7 satellites lifted off from Launch Complex 9A, Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center, People's Republic of China, China. The pad sits at 38.8583, 111.5802.