Long March 3


The Long March 3, also known as the Changzheng 3, CZ-3 and LM-3, was a Chinese orbital carrier rocket design. They were all launched from Launch Area 3 at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center. It was a 3-stage rocket, and was mostly used to place DFH-2-class communications satellites into geosynchronous transfer orbits. It was complemented and later replaced by the more powerful Long March 3A, which has an improved third stage.

List of launches

Flight numberDate Launch sitePayloadOrbitResult
1January 29, 1984
12:25		LA-3, XSLCSTTW 1GTO
2April 8, 1984
11:20		LA-3, XSLCSTTW 2GTO
3February 1, 1986
12:37		LA-3, XSLCDFH-2-1GTO
4March 7, 1988
12:41		LA-3, XSLCDFH-2A-1 GTO
5December 22, 1988
12:40		LA-3, XSLCDFH-2A-2 GTO
6February 4, 1990
12:28		LA-3, XSLCDFH-2A-3 GTO
7April 7, 1990
13:30		LA-3, XSLCAsiaSat 1GTO
8December 28, 1991
12:00		LA-3, XSLCDFH-2A-4 GTO
9July 21, 1994
10:55		LA-3, XSLCAPStar 1GTO
10July 3, 1996
10:47		LA-3, XSLCAPStar 1AGTO
11August 18, 1996
10:27		LA-3, XSLCChinaSat 7GTO
12June 10, 1997
12:01		LA-3, XSLCFengyun 2AGTO
13June 25, 2000
11:50		LA-3, XSLCFengyun 2BGTO

Launch failures

Dong Fang Hong 2 launch failure

On January 29, 1984, a LM-3 rocket failed during launch.
The third stage failed 4 s after restart for GTO insertion of the satellite, due to incorrect mixture ratio in the engine gas generator, which caused high temperatures and burned out the turbine casing. However, many planned tests on the experimental communications spacecraft were still carried out in the resulting elliptical orbit.

ChinaSat 4 launch failure

On December 28, 1991, a LM-3 rocket failed during launch.
The third-stage engine suffered a loss of turbine speed and combustion pressure 58 s after re-igniting for the second burn for GTO insertion and shut down completely 135 s after re-ignition. Loss of pressure in the high-pressure helium supply used for engine control had reduced the propellant flow.

ChinaSat 7 launch failure

On August 18, 1996 a LM-3 rocket failed during launch.
The third-stage engine shut down roughly 40 s earlier than planned because of a fire in the LH2 injector of the gas generator. Insufficient purging had permitted oxygen to freeze in the gas generator during flight.