At 3:53 pm on December 6, 2025, the Long March 8A carrier rocket successfully lifted off from the launch station No. 1 of the Hainan Commercial Space Launch Site, successfully sending 14 groups of satellite Internet low-orbit satellites into the predetermined orbit. In this mission, in addition to the successful launch of 14 groups of satellite Internet low-orbit satellites into space, there is another piece of information that is very noteworthy: for the first time, Long March 8A changed its main fuel from traditional petroleum-based aerospace kerosene to coal-based kerosene.
Currently, there are a total of two launch stations at the Hainan Commercial Space Launch Site performing launch missions. Station 1 is a dedicated launch station for the Long March 8 series launch vehicles, and station 2 is a general-purpose launch station. However, it currently mainly performs launches of the Long March 12 launch vehicles. Before December 6, the Long March 8 series launch vehicles used petroleum-based aerospace kerosene, and the Long March 12 launch vehicle used coal-based kerosene. Every time the dual-station mission status was switched, the pipelines needed to be purged and cleaned, and the two types of kerosene had to be stored and temperature-regulated separately, which virtually increased the mission preparation period. After the No. 1 station also uses coal-based aerospace kerosene, not only does the dual-station task status switching no longer require purging and cleaning of the pipeline, but also after using a single tank for temperature adjustment, the remaining fuel can be directly used for the next mission, and there is no need to prepare different fuels specifically for the next mission. This not only reduces the financial pressure of Hainan Commercial Development, but also directly improves Hainan Commercial Development’s mission support capabilities, thus increasing the frequency of rocket launches. In addition, the petroleum-based aerospace kerosene used in the previous station No. 1 needed to be transported from Karamay, Xinjiang to Hainan. Not only was the transportation cycle long, but the guarantee during the transportation was also complicated. After using coal-based kerosene, it can be purchased from No. 165 of the Sixth Academy of Aerospace Science and Technology and supplied from nearby Shaanxi. Not only can the procurement and transportation cycle be shortened, but the cost can also be reduced. Hainan Commercial Development is a commercial enterprise, and each of its costs will not disappear out of thin air. It will be directly reflected in the launch service fee. If its cost can be reduced, it will also be a good thing for the downstream.
For the construction of satellite Internet constellations, building a constellation consisting of tens of thousands of satellites must rely on high-density launches. To achieve high-density launches, in terms of launch site systems and rocket systems, in addition to enough launch stations and enough launch vehicles, the more critical thing is how to shorten the mission preparation period so that the rockets can be launched quickly. From the station side, there have been many good news this year. Several dedicated launch stations for Blue Arrow Aerospace, Tianbing Technology, China Aerospace, and Aerospace Science and Technology Group Commercial Fire Company have been built one after another, adding the most direct physical basis for accelerating the speed of networking, because more stations means a higher total annual launch volume. From the rocket side, with the successful first flight of Blue Arrow Aerospace’s Zhuque 3 into orbit, my country has one more rocket that can be used to undertake constellation networking tasks. If the Long March 12A, Tianlong 3, and Lijian 2 successfully complete their first flights this year, and next year Hyperbolic 3, Gravity 2, and Yuanxingzhe 1 will also successfully complete their first flights, then the bottleneck on the rocket side will be substantially broken.
As problems at the station and rocket ends are gradually alleviated, how to improve the operational efficiency of the launch site and shorten the mission preparation cycle will be the key to directly improving the launch capability per unit time, which will directly affect the number of launches that can be performed within the year. As the most direct lever to increase the frequency of launches in the future, shortening the mission preparation cycle will not only allow the launch site to quickly adjust plans and perform multiple missions within a continuous window period to avoid wasting window resources, but it can also reduce the idle time of personnel, equipment, and sites, diluting the fixed cost of a single launch. Therefore, future launch sites will definitely need to continuously explore measures to shorten mission preparation time, thereby improving rocket launch efficiency.
At present, the main contradiction in the development of the space economy is how to enter space efficiently. However, if the space economy is to be detonated in the future and the space economy is no longer just a state-led cutting-edge exploration, but transformed into an industrial revolution driven by commercial innovation and benefiting ordinary people, the core contradiction will become how to enter space at a low cost and efficiently. And from a national perspective, the country will most likely have an overall control and plan for the construction of work stations. Many companies are currently talking about the lack of work stations. We are in the early stages of networking and there is indeed a shortage of work stations. However, if large-scale construction of work stations is completed after the constellation network is completed, will it still be necessary? With so many stations, the country will definitely not be able to only look at the near term. It will definitely integrate the near, medium and long-term development needs and have an overall plan. Then it will be very important to find out how to shorten the launch interval period. Therefore, this “fuel replacement” of Hainan Commercial Development is of great significance. There are more launch stations, more rockets that can undertake missions, and rocket launch efficiency continues to improve. The combination of the three is definitely a very important good news for the construction of my country’s satellite Internet constellation.
