Long March 3B

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Long March 3B
Long March 3B
Fact sheet
Function	Carrier rocket
Manufacturer	CALT
Country of origin	People's Republic of China
Size
Height	54.8 metres (180 ft)[1]
Diameter	3.35 metres (11.0 ft)[1]
Mass	425,800 kilograms (939,000 lb)[1]
Stages	3
Capacity
Payload to LEO	12,000 kilograms (26,000 lb)[2]
Payload to SSO	5,700 kilograms (13,000 lb)[2]
Payload to GTO	5,100 kilograms (11,000 lb)[2]
Payload to GEO	2,000 kilograms (4,400 lb)[2]
Payload to HCO	3,300 kilograms (7,300 lb)[2]
Associated Rockets
Family	Long March
Derivatives	Long March 3C
Launch History
Status	Active
Launch sites	LC-2, XSLC
Total launches	9
Successes	8
Failures	1
Maiden flight	14 February 1996

The Long March 3B, also known as the Chang Zheng 3B, CZ-3B and LM-3B, is a Chinese orbital carrier rocket. It is launched from Launch Complex 2 at the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre. A 3-stage rocket with four strapon liquid rocket boosters, it is the heaviest member of the Long March 3 rocket family, and is mainly used to place communications satellites into geosynchronous orbits.

During its maiden flight, on 14 February 1996, the rocket suffered a guidance failure two seconds into the flight, and pitched over, crashing into a village 22 seconds after launch. The Intelsat 708 satellite was lost, and a number of civillians were killed. Since that, eight successful flights have been made. On 13 May 2007, one was used to launch NigComSat-1, the first African geosynchronous communications satellite.

A modified version, the Long March 3C, was built to bridge the gap in payload capacity between the Long March 3B and 3A. This consists of a Long March 3B, with two boosters instead of four, and first flew on 25 April 2008.

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