China Launches 600th Long March Rocket as Guowang Constellation Expansion Continues

China successfully launched its 600th Long March rocket with the lift-off of its Long March 8A on Oct. 15. With it, the rocket took the 12th group of Guowang constellation satellites, expanding China’s low Earth orbit broadband network designed to one day compete with Starlink. This launch continues that rollout and highlights the accelerating launch cadence of China’s aerospace authorities.

Following the success of Starlink, several nations have announced similar projects. China has Guowang, and Russia is planning its own, which will begin trials in 2027. The EU has also called for a Starlink-like constellation, citing independence and national security reasons.

But these constellations are way behind Starlink, which currently has over 8,000 satellites in orbit. Guowang is the next furthest along in deployment, but it has 95 satellites at most, according to SpaceNews. China plans to expand that to over 400 by 2027 and 13,000 in the years to come.

Starlink has been so successful and seen such rapid development because SpaceX can always add a few satellites to its Falcon 9 launches to pad them out if it has spare payload capacity. That’s impossible for almost any other country or company, giving SpaceX a huge advantage.

But others are keen to catch up, regardless. China is launching more rockets, and with the EU pushing for its own reusable craft in the future, we could see its launch cadence increase in turn as affordability also rises.

China took until 2007 to launch its first 100 Long March rockets, and until 2021 to launch its 400th. It’s launched the last 100 in less than two years, and may well manage close to 70 in 2025 alone. With plans for a reusable Long March 12A sometime in 2026, Chinese rocket launches could accelerate even further in the near future.