Long March 3B/E version
Long March 3B/E CZ-3B
The original CZ-3B is the version the 3B/E derives from: 54.8 m tall, 425,800 kg at liftoff and 5,100 kg to geostationary transfer orbit. It flew twelve times between 14 February 1996 and 18 September 2012, with one catastrophic failure — the maiden flight — and one partial failure. It is retired: the 3B/E took its place from 2007.
- February 14, 1996
- First launch
- No
- Reusable
History
A catastrophic debut
The first CZ-3B lifted off from Xichang on 14 February 1996 with the Intelsat 708 communications satellite. The rocket veered off the vertical seconds after ignition and fell on an inhabited area near the launch centre. It was one of the worst accidents in the history of space launch and marked the reputation of the Chinese programme among commercial customers for years.
Service and retirement
Past that initial disaster, the 3B became China's reference launcher for geostationary satellites, with four liquid boosters around the Long March 3A core. In 2009 it suffered a partial failure with Indonesia's Palapa-D satellite, left in a lower orbit than planned and forced to raise itself under its own propulsion. The last flight of the original version took place on 18 September 2012 with two Compass satellites of the BeiDou system. By then the 3B/E, with its stretched first stage and boosters, had already been in service for five years.