Demonstration flight of the Long March 8A rocket with upgraded first stage and boosters engines, and a new larger liquid hydrogen/liquid oxygen second stage with new YF-75H engines derived from ones used on the Long March 5.
Payload is a batch of 9 Low Earth Orbit communication satellites for the Chinese state owned SatNet constellation operated by the China Satellite Network Group.
The constellation will eventually consists of 13000 satellites.
The Long March 8A is an orbital launch vehicle developed by the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology based on the Long March 8. It has an increased capability of up to 7 tonnes to a 700 km altitude sun-synchronous orbit. It implements a larger 3.35 meters diameter liquid hydrogen/liquid oxygen 2nd stage, coupled with 2 upgraded version of the YF-75D engines used on the Long March 5 (known as the YF-75H) with increased thrust to 10 tonnes each through measures such as increased turbopump speeds. The Long March 8A can also use a larger 5.2 meters diameter payload fairing.
