September 3, 2024: In August 2024 the upper stage of a Chinese LM (Long March) 6A space launch vehicle broke apart creating a debris field of over 800 objects that were at least 10 cm in size. Objects this size or larger are easy for ground radars to track. This was a rare failure for the current Long March SLV (Satellite Launch Vehicle) rockets. The second stage of this SLV successfully put its 18 satellites into orbit but then, instead of plunging to earth and burning up in the atmosphere, the second stage came apart and created a large debris field.

This was the seventh launch of a LM 6A since 2022 and all were successful in completing their missions of delivering satellites to orbit. Chinese SLV accidents are a major cause of additional debris in space. As of June 2024, LM SLVs have been launched 525 times with a success rate of 96.4 percent.

The Long March series has always been China's main satellite launcher and that is largely because it is based on older Russian designs. That means it is simple, cheap and reliable. This has made China a major player in the satellite launching business where minimum levels of reliability are mandatory. China can handle the mandatory requirements and competes on price.

The U.S. Space Shuttle was retired because it was the most expensive way to get stuff into orbit. Satellites sent up via the Space Shuttle cost $25 million a ton put in orbit. The Russians and Chinese will do it for under $10 million a ton, though insurance can more than double that cost if there have been a number of recent failures with their boosters. The Space Shuttle failure rate was two percent, which was similar to most Western satellite launchers. This low failure rate keeps more reliable American and European boosters in business.

Price competition from the United States has become more intense because the Americans have developed and are increasingly using the SpaceX (Space Exploration Technologies Corporation) launcher technology. The SpaceX reusable rockets, which repeatedly returned to earth and landed intact under their own power, have fundamentally changed the launcher business because these rockets are refurbished and used again and again. This saves SpaceX a lot of money and gives it a major competitive edge over its rivals.

SpaceX is a commercial firm that was founded in 2002 with the goal of breaking into a market controlled by long-time space launch suppliers. By 2002 these veteran firms had formed a legal cartel that monopolized satellite launch services for the U.S. government. After 2006 all this business was to have gone to a government-approved monopoly called the ULA (United Launch Alliance) which is composed of Lockheed Martin (using Atlas 5 rockets) and Boeing (Delta 4). These two firms have dominated U.S. space launches for over half a century and in 2006 they monopolized it. These launchers were similar to the Chinese Long March and Soyuz launchers.

Despite that monopoly, by 2012 SpaceX obtained its first contract to launch U.S. military cargo into space. SpaceX had earlier obtained a NASA contract which included 12 deliveries to the International Space Station at $134 million each. What made all this so noteworthy is that SpaceX is the first privately owned space transportation company. SpaceX developed its own launch rockets without any government help. SpaceX also developed the Dragon space vehicle, for delivering personnel and supplies to the International Space Station.

Suddenly it was obvious that SpaceX rockets were a lot cheaper and as reliable as older American launchers. The ULA, as well as European, Russian and Chinese space launcher operations, had to adapt to avoid losing all their commercial, and some of their military, business. China says it will match the SpaceX tech but so far there has been no visible progress in that area. Despite all that, since 2018 China has developed more capability to put satellites into orbit than anyone else. That edge is deceptive because American and other Western satellite manufacturers are switching to a new satellite tech that employs smaller satellites to do the work of larger ones. While the SpaceX family of launchers can also put conventional large satellites into orbit, SpaceX is specializing in putting lots more smaller satellites up there with each launch. China has a good record in using older launcher designs, but now new American tech is forcing China to adapt or to lose a lot of their foreign launch customers while paying more than their competitors to launch their own satellites.

China has yet to fully explain the delays and failures encountered in developing the latest Long March 5 rocket, which is supposed to be cheaper and more reliable. So far, the Long March 5 is neither. Long March rockets are mainly used for commercial launches and that is big business which China seeks to dominate long-term.

The predecessor of LM 5 is Long March 4C, which has been in service since 2006 and has a failure rate of over five percent. The Long March 5s were initially developed for carrying the heaviest loads; 25 tons low orbit or 14 tons high orbit. The Long March 5 is the heaviest launcher, at 867 tons, and made its first flight in 2016. Since then, it has launched five times with one failure. It is unclear if that one failure was caused by a fundamental flaw in the rocket design. That has slowed down the use of Long March 5. This is a problem because Long March is the only rocket that can lift certain cargoes, like portions of the new Chinese space station, or major space missions like the upcoming second Chinese mission to put robot exploration vehicles on the moon.

While the Russians are also having problems with their satellite launchers, that’s because the Russian government has less money to invest in its space program or satellite launchers in general. In addition, Russia has been losing skilled personnel, from manufacturing workers to rocket scientists, since the Soviet Union fell apart in 1991. In the same time period China has been increasing the quantity and quality of personnel as its space and satellite launcher programs grew enormously. China also pays better, for the same skills, than Russia. Whatever problems China is having with the Long March, they are much better able to deal with than the Russians who suffer from a growing list of failures in that area and defense manufacturing in general.

The Long March 3 and 4 have been doing most of the Chinese commercial launches since the 1980s. Currently the largest Long March 3 model weighs over 400 tons and can put 12 tons in Low Earth Orbit or 5.5 tons in a high Geostationary Transfer Orbit. The Chinese took their time to perfect Long March, requiring 28 years to make the first fifty launches, and nine years for the next fifty. So far, Long March has carried out over 330 successful launches.

While military satellites get more media attention, the real business of space, and where the Chinese put most of their efforts, is in commercial satellites. The Chinese have noted that since the 1980s space satellites have gone from big business to huge business. By 2012 there were about 2,000 active satellites in orbit. That changed dramatically as SpaceX increased its launches. By June 2024 there were over 10,000 active satellites up there, 66 percent of which belonged to SpaceX, an American company.

The number of satellites has increased rapidly because of lower launching costs attributed to the SpaceX use of reusable boosters. SpaceX Starlink satellites currently weigh 800 kg each. In some cases, dozens of mini-sats are put into orbit by one launcher.

Since 2001 satellite industry revenues have more than tripled and are now over $400 billion a year. The cost of the satellites is less than ten percent of annual satellite revenues. About four percent of the money comes from launching all those satellites and 36 percent of those launches are military. The U.S. has about a third of the launch business, mainly because of the requirement that U.S. classified satellites be launched by American rockets. About half the satellite launches (and two-thirds of the satellites) were for communications, which generates the most income (mostly for TV, followed by data). The U.S. remains the major manufacturer of commercial satellites, with over half of the market. China sees opportunity in all this and has come a long way in a short time to take advantage of it. Russia and the United States have both been using retired ICBMs as cheap satellite launchers, and that started with older liquid fuel models. China does not have many older liquid fuel ICBMs and has concentrated on developing more reliable and cheaper solid fuel rockets. This is paying off. Moreover, China will sell launch service to just about anyone who can pay, no questions asked.

Space satellites are a relatively new thing. In 1957 the Russian Sputnik was the first satellite ever put in orbit. The U.S. followed in 1958. Since then, ten other nations have done the same. France launched its first satellite in 1965, Japan and China in 1970, Britain in 1971 and India in 1980. Israel launched its first satellite in 1988. Ukraine did so in 1995. Iran claims to have put a satellite in orbit, but there is no conclusive proof. North Korea put a dead (non-responsive) satellite up in December 2012 and South Korea followed with a successful launch of a very active satellite a month later.

In 2015 China predicted that it would be launching 30 satellites a year and accounting for over a quarter of the worldwide launch capability. That prediction proved to be quite accurate. All this momentum has been the result of three decades of effort and an enormous spurt of activity since 2010. In the two decades after 1990 China carried out 30 commercial satellite launches, putting 36 satellites in orbit. Now China puts that many satellites up in about a year.

In late 2015 China successfully began testing another new Long March model: LM 6. This version is optimized for putting multiple small satellites in orbit on the same mission and on short notice. The test launch put twenty small scientific satellites into orbit. LM 6 is a 103-ton liquid fueled rocket that can put a ton of payload into a 700 kilometer high orbit. LM 6 can operate from a standard satellite launch facility or from a TEL (transporter erector launcher) vehicle (which is basically a slightly larger trailer similar to those used for hauling tanks). LM 6 was also designed to be made ready for launch quickly (six days or so) giving it a military capability. That means, if China has to get a surveillance or communications satellite in orbit quickly, LM 6 is the solution. But since 2015 the Long March 6 has launched only four times and the unexpected success of SpaceX has caused China to reconsider the usefulness of LM 6. At the same time China is also developing small surveillance and communications satellites for rapid use for emergency launches. This gives China experience in developing cheaper, smaller satellites, which are more the future than anyone expected.