Long March 3B/E

Development of the Long March 3B began in 1986 to meet demand from the international geostationary communications satellite market. Its maiden flight, on 14 February 1996 carrying the Intelsat 708 satellite, ended in disaster: the rocket suffered a guidance failure two seconds into flight and crashed into a nearby town. The official US report put the death toll at at least six, while outside estimates suggested between 200 and 500 casualties; the author of one such estimate later ruled out the higher figures after evidence emerged that the crash site had been evacuated before the launch.

The 3B and 3B/E strung together ten successful launches between 1997 and 2008. The 3B/E configuration first flew on 13 May 2007, when it orbited Nigeria's NigComSat-1, the first African geosynchronous communications satellite. In 2009 a 3B suffered a partial failure caused by a third-stage anomaly that left the Palapa-D satellite in a lower orbit than planned, although the spacecraft was able to manoeuvre itself into the intended orbit.

In December 2013 a 3B/E successfully lifted Chang'e 3, China's first lunar lander, together with the Yutu rover, onto the projected lunar transfer trajectory. The configuration went on to complete 26 consecutive successful launches between 19 June 2017 and 9 March 2020. In April 2020 the third stage failed during the Palapa-N1 communications satellite mission, the first total failure of the 3B/E. The Long March 3B was also the first rocket in the Long March series to accumulate 100 orbital launches. Across all its versions the 3B family has flown 117 launches with 112 successes; the 3B/E configuration alone accounts for 105 flights with 102 successes, 2 failures and 1 partial failure, the most recent being the 23 July 2026 mission with Tianlian II-06.