CASC
China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC, 中国航天科技集团公司), founded in 1999 as a restructuring of the Ministry of Aerospace Industry, is China's primary state-owned space enterprise and the main contractor for virtually all of China's government space programs — manufacturing the Long March family of launch vehicles, Shenzhou crewed spacecraft, Tianhe space station modules, lunar exploration vehicles, and China's major civilian and military satellites.
- Founded
- 1999
- Headquarters
- Beijing, China
- Ownership
- Subsidiary of State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council
Quick Facts
About CASC
China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC, 中国航天科技集团公司), founded in 1999 as a restructuring of the Ministry of Aerospace Industry, is China's primary state-owned space enterprise and the main contractor for virtually all of China's government space programs — manufacturing the Long March family of launch vehicles, Shenzhou crewed spacecraft, Tianhe space station modules, lunar exploration vehicles, and China's major civilian and military satellites.
CASC's Long March rocket family spans 13+ variants covering the complete payload spectrum from the 200 kg Long March 11 solid small-lift to the 25+ tonne LEO Long March 5 (China's heaviest operational rocket, used for Chang'e 5 lunar sample return and Tianwen-1 Mars mission). Long March 3B and 3C are workhorse GEO launchers for Chinese and commercial communications satellites; Long March 2F is the dedicated human spaceflight vehicle for Shenzhou crewed missions and Tianzhou cargo resupply to the Chinese Space Station (CSS/Tiangong). Long March 5B is the large module launcher for Tianhe core module and Wentian/Mengtian experiment modules.
CASC spacecraft achievements include: Chang'e 3 (2013, first lunar soft landing since 1976), Chang'e 4 (2019, first far-side of Moon landing), Chang'e 5 (2020, first lunar sample return since 1976, 1.73 kg collected), Tianwen-1 (2021, Mars orbiter + lander + rover Zhurong), and the Chinese Space Station operational since 2021 with permanent crew rotation. The Shenzhou and CSS programs now conduct regular 6-month crew missions with three taikonauts.
CASC also manufactures the DFH and Shijian series of communications and weather satellites, BeiDou navigation constellation satellites (35-satellite global system comparable to GPS), and reconnaissance/Earth observation satellites for the Chinese military. Annual CASC launch cadence exceeds 40 missions, making it one of the world's most active launch organizations.
Products and product lines
| Product | Line | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Long March 5 | Heavy-lift launch vehicle | China's largest operational rocket family (25+ tonnes to LEO); launched the Chang'e 6 far-side lunar sample-return mission on 3 May 2024 and was being prepared, as of 2026, to launch the delayed Chang'e 7 mission. |
| Long March 10 | Crewed/commercial launch vehicle (in development) | Three-variant family built by CASC's China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology for crewed lunar missions via the Mengzhou spacecraft and Lanyue lander; the 10B variant achieved China's first controlled orbital-booster sea recovery on its 10 July 2026 maiden flight. |
| Shenzhou | Crewed spacecraft | Ferries three-person crews to the Tiangong space station; Shenzhou 23, launched 24 May 2026, began China's first attempt at a year-long crewed stay. |
| Tiangong space station | Space station | Permanently crewed Chinese space station in low Earth orbit, continuously resupplied and crew-rotated via Shenzhou and Tianzhou missions; its Shenzhou-23 crew completed its first series of spacewalks by late August 2026. |
| Chang'e 6 | Lunar sample-return mission | First-ever mission to return samples from the Moon's far side, landing in the Apollo Basin on 1 June 2024 and returning 1,935.3 grams to Inner Mongolia on 25 June 2024. |
| Chang'e 7 | Lunar south-pole mission | Mission to search for water ice near the lunar south pole; its launch, originally targeted for August 2026, was delayed to 2027 with the spacecraft already mated to its Long March 5 rocket at Wenchang. |
| Mengzhou | Next-generation crewed spacecraft (in development) | CASC's planned successor to Shenzhou for lunar missions; its launch-escape system was flight-tested on a suborbital Long March 10A test stage on 11 February 2026. |
Timeline
- 2024 Chang'e 6 launches on 3 May, lands on the lunar far side in the Apollo Basin on 1 June, and returns 1,935.3 grams of far-side samples to Inner Mongolia on 25 June — the first far-side lunar sample return. [source]
- 2024 CASC's China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology conducts the first large-scale propulsion test of the Long March 10 in June, firing three YF-100K engines simultaneously. [source]
- 2025 Tianzhou 9 launches on 14 July, delivering about 6,500kg of cargo, including two upgraded spacesuits, to the Tiangong space station. [source]
- 2026 A Long March 10A test stage carrying a Mengzhou crew module launches on a suborbital flight on 11 February to test the spacecraft's launch-escape system, with the booster splashing down about 200 metres from its recovery vessel. [source]
- 2026 Shenzhou 23 launches on 24 May carrying commander Zhu Yangzhu, pilot Zhang Zhiyuan and Hong Kong payload specialist Lai Ka-ying to Tiangong, beginning China's first attempt at a year-long crewed stay. [source]
- 2026 Long March 10B makes its maiden flight on 10 July, successfully recovering its first stage on a sea-based platform — China's first controlled orbital-booster recovery. [source]
- 2026 The Shenzhou-23 crew completes its first series of extravehicular activities aboard Tiangong, reported 31 August. [source]
- 2026 China's Chang'e 7 lunar south-pole mission, originally targeted for launch around 23-24 August 2026 and already mated to its Long March 5 rocket at Wenchang, is delayed to 2027 after poor weather caused by Typhoon Narra. [source]
Team
Signals
- Launch vehicles
- Long March 5
- Verification
- Verified 2026-09-10
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Frequently asked about CASC
Quick answers to the questions readers most often search for.
- When was CASC founded?
- CASC was founded in 1999 in China.
- Where is CASC headquartered?
- CASC is headquartered in Beijing, China.
- What does CASC do?
- China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC, 中国航天科技集团公司), founded in 1999 as a restructuring of the Ministry of Aerospace Industry, is China's primary state-owned space enterprise and the main contractor for virtually all of China's government space programs — manufacturing the Long March family of launch …
- What sector does CASC operate in?
- CASC works in launch services, Satellite manufacturing and Space agency.
Sources
The structured fields on this page (founding year, location, sector, status, listing) and the profile text are drawn from the sources below. How profiles are drafted and checked is described in our methodology.
- Official website (www.spacechina.com)
- Wikidata / Wikipedia · retrieved 2026-09-04
- Wikipedia: Chang'e 6 · retrieved 2026-09-10
- Wikipedia: Chang'e 7 · retrieved 2026-09-10
- Wikipedia: Long March 10 · retrieved 2026-09-10
- Wikipedia: Shenzhou 23 · retrieved 2026-09-10
- Wikipedia: Tianzhou 9 · retrieved 2026-09-10
- CASC (English): Leadership page (Chen Mingbo, Chairman; Zhou Jie, President) · retrieved 2026-09-10
- CASC (English): Newsroom homepage · retrieved 2026-09-10
Data Accuracy Notice: Information about CASC is compiled from publicly available sources including company websites, press releases, regulatory filings, and industry reports. Data is reviewed periodically but may not reflect the most recent developments.