Long March 7

New man-rated medium-heavy launch vehicle based on the reliable Long March 2F rocket

Part of a new generation rocket family of Long March 5, Long March 6 and Long March 7,

The Long March 7 vehicle fits the gap between the heavy Long March 5 family and the small-mid Long March 6 family and is also an updated design to compete with the current SpaceX Falcon 9 Rocket.

An upgraded Long March 7A is set to launch early 2020 from Wenchang spaceport.

The Long March 7A is modified with an extra third rocket stage of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen from the older Long March 3B, allowing it to lift payloads of between 5.5 and 7 metric tons into geostationary transfer orbit (GTO).

The Long March 7 can deliver 13.5 tonnes to low-Earth orbit or 7 tonnes into Geostationary Transfer Orbit, it uses a 4.2-meter diameter payload fairing

Long March 7 maiden Launch 25 June 2016

Saturday 25 June 2016 Long March-7's successful maiden flight and was the first launch from China's new space launch centre in Wenchang, a city in the southern province of Hainan.

Wenchang Space Launch Center (S China)

The payload was a test re-entry module a scaled-down version of China’s future crewed spacecraft returned to Earth at a desert in Inner Mongolia Sunday afternoon after orbiting the Earth 13 times.

Long March 7 rocket

Long March 7 uses six YF-100 engines, one on each of the four boosters and a pair on the larger Core Stage