China conducts pair of Long March launches for Thousand Sails and Guowang megaconstellations

HELSINKI — China carried out separate Long March 8 and Long March 6A launches this week, adding new batches of satellites to the country's megaconstellation projects.

Further reports state that 18 satellites were aboard the flight, which headed into a near-polar orbit, according to airspace closure notifications. The satellites were manufactured by the Innovation Academy for Microsatellites of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (IAMCAS).

A Long March 8 rocket lifted off at 9:32 a.m. Eastern (1332 UTC) April 7 from the Hainan Commercial Space Launch Site. The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), which provided the launch services, confirmed launch success, officially revealing the payloads to be for the Thousand Sails constellation.