Long March 3A


The Long March 3A, also known as the Chang Zheng 3A, CZ-3A and LM-3A, is a Chinese orbital carrier rocket, part of the Long March family of expendable rockets. A three-stage rocket, it was usually used to place communications satellites and Beidou navigation satellites into geosynchronous transfer orbit. It was manufactured by the Great Wall Industry Corporation.

History and specifications

The Long March 3A is the first variant of the Long March 3. The first stage was lengthened from to, and the third stage was enlarged and redesigned to accommodate two YF-75 rocket engines, whereas its predecessor had a single YF-73; this gave it the capability to lift into geosynchronous orbit, compared to the Long March 3's. A new computer system was also installed.
The first and second stages used hypergolic propellants, while the third used cryogenic fuel.
Its achievements include powering the first two BeiDou navigation satellites into orbit, as well as China's first Moon probe, Chang'e 1, into lunar orbit in 2007.
It formed the basis of the Long March 3B, which by adding four strap-on booster rockets increased the lifting capacity to.

Launches

Long March 3A rockets were launched from Launch Areas 2 and 3 at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center.
Flight numberSerial numberDate Launch sitePayloadOrbitResult
1Y18 February 1994
08:34		LA-2, XSLCShijian 4HEO
2Y229 November 1994
17:02		LA-2, XSLCDong Fang Hong 3GTO
3Y311 May 1997
16:17		LA-2, XSLCChinaSat 6GTO
4Y425 January 2000
16:45		LA-2, XSLCChinaSat 22GTO
5Y530 October 2000
16:02		LA-2, XSLCBeidou-1AGTO
6Y620 December 2000
16:20		LA-2, XSLCBeidou-1BGTO
7Y724 May 2003
16:34		LA-2, XSLCBeidou-1CGTO
8Y814 November 2003
16:01		LA-2, XSLCChinaSat 20GTO
9Y919 October 2004
01:20		LA-2, XSLCFengyun 2CGTO
10Y1012 September 2006
16:02		LA-2, XSLCChinaSat 22AGTO
11Y118 December 2006
00:53		LA-2, XSLCFengyun 2DGTO
12Y122 February 2007
16:28		LA-2, XSLCBeidou-1DGTO
13Y1313 April 2007
20:11		LA-3, XSLCCompass-M1MEO
14Y1531 May 2007
16:08		LA-3, XSLCSinoSat 3GTO
15Y1424 October 2007
10:05		LA-3, XSLCChang'e 1LTO
16Y2023 December 2008
00:54		LA-3, XSLCFengyun 2EGTO
17Y1631 July 2010
21:30		LA-3, XSLCCompass-IGSO1GTO
18Y2124 November 2010
16:09		LA-3, XSLCChinaSat 20AGTO
19Y1817 December 2010
20:20		LA-3, XSLCCompass-IGSO2GTO
20Y199 April 2011
20:47		LA-3, XSLCCompass-IGSO3GTO
21Y1726 July 2011
21:44		LA-3, XSLCCompass-IGSO4GTO
22Y231 December 2011
21:07		LA-3, XSLCCompass-IGSO5GTO
23Y2213 January 2012
00:56		LA-3, XSLCFengyun 2FGTO
24Y2431 December 2014
01:02		LA-2, XSLCFengyun 2GGTO
25Y2629 March 2016
20:11		LA-2, XSLCCompass-IGSO6GTO
26Y255 June 2018
13:07		LA-2, XSLCFengyun 2HGTO
27Y279 July 2018
20:58		LA-2, XSLCCompass-IGSO7GTO