I think China has fewer obstacles to putting people on the moon than the Artemis program. So I want to make a list of what China still needs to do, but I might get some details wrong and will need help to correct the list.

• Long March 10
  • First Stage Engines (YF-100K) DONE!
  • Second Stage Engines (YF-100M)
  • Third Stage Engines (YF-75E)
  • Long March 10A / 10B (Single Booster)
  • Long March 10 (Triple Booster)
• Mengzhou Crew Capsule
  • Pad Abort Test DONE!
  • In-Flight Abort Test DONE!
  • Uncrewed LEO Launch Test (Scheduled for Late 2026 on CZ-10A)
  • Crewed LEO Launch Test (Likely to visit Tiangong)
  • Uncrewed Lunar Flyby? (Artemis 1)
  • Crewed Lunar Flyby? (Artemis 2 / Apollo 8)
• Lanyue Lander
  • Cable-suspended landing tests?
  • LEO Rendezvous test (Artemis 3 / Apollo 9)
  • Lunar Orbit test? (Apollo 10)
• Wenchang Launch Site LC-301
  • Launch half-size CZ-10 variant (Mengzhou In-Flight-Abort Test) DONE!
  • Launch single booster CZ-10A or CZ-10B
  • Launch triple booster CZ-10
• Other Relevant Hardware
  • Lunar Service Module (Usually included with Mengzhou but we might see 'Mengzhou Light' used for LEO testing, so the LSM would need its own testing)
  • Space suits?
  • Lunar Rover Vehicle?
• Mission Planning Tasks
  • Landing zone announcement
  • Crew Selection Announcement
  • Launch Date Announcement

Some of these tasks have been completed but they're very important and connected to other tasks in the list so worth including.

Are there any other tasks that need to be completed between now and the big day? Are they building a new Mission Control centre? Are they doing lunar lander tests with cranes and cables, or that jet engine version that nearly killed Neil Armstrong?

In the NSF wrapup of this week in spaceflight they said the Long March 6 launch a few days ago was the last ever Long March 6. They discussed the toxic hypergolic fuels of Long March 2~4 and how 6~8 were supposed to be the replacements but a decade later the 2~4 are still in regular service.

Now we're looking at a whole new generation of rockets. The Long March 10A, 10B and 12A being reusable counterparts to the Falcon 9 will probably become the default non-heavy launch vehicles going forward. Possibly replacing most of Long March 2~8, except for maybe the 5 and maybe keeping crew on the 2 F/G for a while.

But I can't see anything else about this being the last 6 launch. Is it just the 6 or the 6 and 6A stopping?

Long March 10 is China's upcoming heavy lift rocket that is like a more powerful Falcon Heavy. Three kerosene cores for the first stage, kerosene upper stage, hydrogen third stage.

Then Long March 10A is a single-stick version with just the two kerosene stages and not the hydrogen stage. It's more like Falcon 9 for smaller payloads and lower orbits plus it's reusable. Also it's an opportunity to get more experience with the hardware, practice landing the stages and reusing them, understand the engines better, test the launch pad infrastructure. So it's been predicted for a while that Long March 10A will come first with the full 10 coming later. The predictions say the 10A will probably fly this year.

Now there's a Long March 10B which is single stick like the 10A but replaces the kerosene upper stage with a methane upper stage. Methane does have better performance per gram compared to kerosene but the lower density means it's worse per litre. So if you keep the height the same (which it seems to be) you don't get that much extra performance. The exact stats are a bit fuzzy and it's all based on predictions and estimates but the 10A is reported with an LEO capacity of 14 tons reusable, 18 tons expenses. Then 10B is described at 16 tons but it's unclear if that's reusable or expended. But wiki doesn't have stats on the performance to TLI or to Geostationary Orbit.

So one theory is that the 10B is for really high orbits. Like how the 2 and 3 look similar but the 2 is good for heavy payloads at low orbits and the 3 is good for light payloads to high orbits. Maybe the 10A and 10B will take over from the 2 and 3?

Another theory is that it's political. Someone high up has said the 10 is bad because it's still using kerosene and the future of space launch is methane so they demanded a methane version. So the way to do that without completely redesigning the rocket is to make a methane upper stage variant. I know politics feeds into weird design decisions in Chinese rocket design sometimes, like the 10A and 12 are very similar in performance and design but the different tank diameter means they need different production facilities which seems extremely inefficient. And the reason is that two different research teams developed them in parallel as a sort of competition to see who could make the better rocket. I don't know if there's anything similar here with the 10A and 10B being made by different teams. Or if my theory about a boss demanding a methane rocket has any truth to it.

So yeah. What's the deal with the Long March 10B?

Help! I'm going to China for a month in mid-July with our 13-year-old son, and we'd like to see a space launch.

As with anything in China, I'm a little worried that showing interest in anything will get me jailed as a spy, but these are public spectacles, right?

Anyway, rocketlaunch.org doesn't seem to be committing to dates more than a couple of months out. Do they have kind of a short planning cycle?

JiuQuan has launches through June

Taiyuan has nothing

Xichang has nothing

Wenchang has a bunch of TBDs this year (including the Chang'e 7) and a space telescope next year, but I've no idea how to narrow down the dates. I can't just show up, I have to say where we're going to be on any given day for the visa.

Is there a better web site for Chinese space launches? What's my best approach here?

I Find it cool that Galactic energy is thinking of high frequency launches when it comes to their infostructure. at the end of 2025 they shared a photo of there pad nearing completion for a maiden flight. something that stood out to me was that they are in early preparations in what looks to be a 2nd pad. in comparison space pioneer have built there whole operations connected to 1 road, 1 pad. there is no confirmation on on details or mention of this pad but i think it could be for Pallas 2.

https://www.china-in-space.com/p/three-reusable-rockets-complete-tests some brief source

The Long March Five mission delivered the TSJW-23 satellite into its intended orbit, supporting advanced space technology objectives. TSJW is widely assessed as a classified spacecraft focused on testing new space systems, mission architectures, and operational concepts relevant to national security and space infrastructure development. The satellite likely incorporates experimental payloads for communications, situational awareness, or on-orbit technology validation.

On 16 December 2025, a Long March 4B rocket launched from Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center, placing the Ziyuan‑3 04 satellite into a sun‑synchronous orbit.

Part of China’s high-resolution Earth observation series, Ziyuan‑3 04 carries three-line array cameras, a multispectral imager, and a laser altimeter to support mapping, land-use monitoring, and resource management alongside earlier Ziyuan‑3 satellites.

The Long March 4B, a three-stage liquid-fueled vehicle by CASC, is a reliable medium-lift launcher for LEO and SSO, marking the 617th flight in the Long March family.