China is about to begin the development of the next generation CZ-8 (Long March 8) medium-lift carrier rocket and will conduct the first test flight by 2018, said Li Tongyu, the head of carrier rocket development at the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology on February 27, 2017.

Attached with two 6.5ft and 120 ton of solid-propelled boosters, the core of the CZ-8 will based on the design of CZ-7 (Long March 7) and the CZ-3A (Long March 3A) carrier rockets. Li said that the current developing process is going very well, and the first test flight of CZ-8 can be expected in the year of 2018.

Li also mentioned that CZ-8 would achieve a payload of about 4.5 metric tons to a sun-synchronous orbit, and 2.5 tons to geosynchronous transfer orbit. CZ-8 will greatly reduce the cost of launching low-orbit satellites, which can be well used in commercial satellite launching market.