31st mission of the year

On July 26 at 20:02 UTC, China dispatched from the Xichang base, in the southwestern province of Sichuan, a Long March 2D launch vehicle tasked with deploying three new Yaogan reconnaissance satellites into low-Earth orbit, on behalf of the People's Liberation Army.

This launch marked China's 31st successful orbital mission since January 8 (if you count the test flight of the medium launcher Zhuque 2, on July 12, without payload), and the 22nd with a Long March launcher.

3.8 missions per month

China's Great Wall Industrial Corporation (CGWIC - China Great Wall Industry Corporation) could above all rejoice in signing on July 26 the 150th success in a row for the Long March launcher family since May 5, 2020.

At the time, China had debuted its most powerful launcher, the Long March 5B (a Long March 5 with no upper stage and capable of shipping 23 tons to low-Earth orbit), with a view to assembling the modules for China's Great Space Station, completed in October 2022.

On this occasion, a new 21.6-tonne Chinese XZF capsule had been placed in low-Earth orbit, tested in automatic mode, then recovered after three days, with a high-speed return to Earth (around 9 km/s), simulating the end of a lunar mission.

Thus, with 150 Long March missions carried out in 39 months (i.e. 3.8 flights per month), China is on a par with the staggering SpaceX, which over the same period carried out... 158 missions of the Falcon 9 and 4 of the Falcon Heavy.

In addition, the Chinese launcher was carrying out its 480th mission since entering service in April 1970 - the 78th of the 2D family, which appeared in August 1992.

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