Recently, everyone has been discussing the first commercial rocket shares under the fifth set of listing standards. I am also thinking about what the first commercial rocket shares should look like under a system like ours. As I think about it, I think of the “first commercial rocket shares in China” — AVIC Shenyang Aircraft Co., Ltd., and I really want to talk about China Long March Rocket Co., Ltd.
1. Basic information
China Long March Rocket Co., Ltd. was established in 1998 and is headquartered in the Beijing Economic and Technological Development Zone with a registered capital of 219.68254 million yuan. It is a platform company of the First Academy of Aerospace Science and Technology to promote the marketization, industrialization and commercial development of aerospace business. It provides full-chain services covering rocket selection, plan coordination, resource guarantee, licensing processing and insurance arrangements.
2. Equity Structure
The actual controller of the Long March Rocket Company is the Aerospace Science and Technology Group, and its shareholders mainly include the First Academy of Aerospace Science and Technology and its related parties, the Aerospace Investment Holding Company and its related parties, and external capital. The First Academy of Aerospace Science and Technology and its related parties hold a total of 81.94% of the shares, including 35.89% held by the First Academy, 16.39% held by 12, 16.39% held by 14, and 13.27% held by the First Academy. Aerospace Investment Holding Company and its related parties hold a total of 12.28% of the shares, including 5.78% held by Aerospace Investment Company, 3.61% held by Guohua Fund, and 2.89% held by Guochuang Fund. The only external capital currently is the National Military-Civil Integration Industry Investment Fund Co., Ltd., which holds 5.78% of the shares.
3. Core products
(1) Long March No. 8A
The Long March 8A is a medium-sized liquid launch vehicle. Compared with the Long March 8, the Long March 8A is equipped with a universal hydrogen-oxygen final stage and a larger-diameter fairing, which makes up for my country’s urgent need for low-orbit giant constellation network launches. The Long March 8A can be launched from Station 201 of the Wenchang Space Launch Site and Station 1 of the Hainan Commercial Space Launch Site. Station 201 of the Wenchang Space Launch Site is the first flight station of the Long March 8A. Station 1 of the Hainan Commercial Space Launch Site is a commercial, high-density launch station specially designed for the Long March 8 series rockets.
The Long March 8A has a two-stage and a half configuration, with two boosters. The diameter of the first stage is 3.35 meters, and it is equipped with two YF-100 engines with a thrust of 120 tons. YF-100 uses liquid oxygen and kerosene as propellants, adopts an oxygen-rich pre-ignition staged combustion cycle, the mixing ratio is 2.6, the sea level thrust is 124.8t, the sea level specific impulse is 300s, the vacuum thrust is 136.7t, and the vacuum specific impulse is 335s. The second stage has a diameter of 3.35 meters and is equipped with two YF-75H hydrogen-oxygen engines with a vacuum thrust of 10 tons. The YF-75H is an improvement based on the YF-75D. It adopts a closed expansion cycle and has a thrust of 10 tons at sea level. The booster diameter is 2.25 meters, and each booster is equipped with a YF-100 engine with a thrust of 120 tons.
As a rocket tailor-made by the national team for the commercial aerospace market, the Long March 8A has accurately anchored the core demands of commercial aerospace of “speed, economy and stability” from the beginning of its design. In 2022, the Long March 8A began development, and it took only 28 months to complete the entire process from design to first flight. At 17:30 on February 11, 2025, the Long March 8A made its first flight. The first flight sent the satellite Internet low-orbit group 02 satellites (a total of 9 satellites) into the predetermined orbit. Subsequently, it undertook high-density launch missions and achieved “six battles and six victories” in 2025, undertaking about 40% of low-orbit Internet satellite launch missions that year, and successfully stabilized the launch rhythm of my country’s satellite Internet construction.
(2) Long March No. 10B
The Long March 10B is a 5-meter-class reusable liquid launch vehicle. It is a technological derivative of the national manned lunar landing project (Long March 10 series), but the positioning of the Long March 10B clearly points to commercialization. In July 2025, the Long March 10B project was officially approved. It has now entered the engineering development stage and is scheduled to make its first flight in the first half of 2026.
The Long March 10B has a diameter of 5 meters and a height of 69.67 meters. It has a two-stage configuration. In the one-stage recovery mode, the transportation capacity in low-Earth orbit (200 kilometers) is not less than 16 tons, and the transportation capacity in the orbit at an altitude of 900 kilometers and an inclination angle of 900 degrees is not less than 11 tons.
Backed by the Aerospace Science and Technology Group’s complete R&D system and profound technological accumulation, the development of the Long March 10B not only inherited the inherent high safety and high reliability genes of manned rockets, but also fully absorbed the market development experience of the Long March 8A and other rockets, optimizing the economy while ensuring reliability. Compared with products from emerging commercial rocket companies, Long March 10B has a higher starting point of trust in terms of system reliability. After the Long March 10B is successfully put into service, its low-Earth orbit transport capacity of no less than 16 tons will enable it to carry the launch of a larger number of satellites at one time, raising the carrying capacity threshold and cost efficiency of commercial launches to a new level, making it a product that cannot be ignored in the competition for large-scale constellation networking contracts.
(3) Jielong No. 3
Jielong 3 is a four-stage tandem solid rocket launched specifically for the domestic and international low-orbit satellite network commercial launch market on the basis of fully inheriting the development experience of Long March 11. It is mainly used to launch sun-synchronous orbit and low-Earth orbit satellites.
Jielong 3 has a total length of about 31 meters and a total mass of about 140 tons. The fairing can be configured in two configurations with a diameter of 3.35 meters and 2.9 meters. It can be adapted to a variety of satellite and arrow interfaces and can be adapted to three modes of transportation: road, railway, and sea.
The Jielong 3 development team merged the traditional “plan + preliminary prototype + test sample” into “plan + engineering development” and carried out design and production, production and testing, testing and final assembly in parallel, greatly shortening the development cycle. At the same time, by adopting methods such as early production, comprehensive de-mission, and rocket-like satellites, the performance cycle is greatly shortened. The performance cycle from contract signing to rocket launch is only 3-6 months. At the same time, Jielong 3 broke the traditional test and launch mode of multiple disassembly and assembly. It completed the final assembly and testing, and after docking with the satellite, it was transferred for full system training. After being transported to the scheduled launch sea area, the launch can be completed. The whole process only takes 3-4 days. The single-engine rocket has the capability of high-frequency launches once a week.
