Long March 6A

The Long March 6A or Chang Zheng 6A as in pinyin, abbreviated LM 6A for export or CZ 6A within China, is a Chinese launch vehicle of the Long March family, which was developed by the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) and the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology (SAST).

The vehicle is a further development of the Long March 6, with 2 YF-100 engines on the first stage as opposed to 1 on the Long March 6, augmented by 4 solid rocket boosters. The Long March 6A is China's first rocket with solid rocket boosters. There also exists a shorter boosterless variant of the 6A called the Long March 6C.

The maiden launch of the Long March 6A took place on March 29, 2022, successfully reaching orbit. It was also the first launch from the newly built launch complex 9A in Taiyuan.

Mishaps
After the release of the Yunhai 3 following the Y2 launch of 11 November 2022, the Long March 6's upper stage exploded and broke into more than 50 pieces of debris, which expanded to more than 350 pieces. The vehicle was supposed to re-enter in one piece and then burn up and it's unclear why it exploded instead.