- Long March 3
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Not to be confused with Long March 3 rocket family.
Long March 3 
Long March 3Function Carrier rocket Manufacturer CALT Country of origin 
People's Republic of ChinaSize Height 43.25 metres (141.9 ft)[1] Diameter 3.35 metres (11.0 ft)[1] Mass 204,000 kilograms (450,000 lb)[1] Stages 3 Capacity Payload to
LEO5,000 kilograms (11,000 lb)[2] Payload to
GTO1,340 kilograms (3,000 lb)[2] Associated rockets Family Long March Derivatives Long March 3A Launch history Status Retired Launch sites LC-1, XSLC Total launches 14 Successes 11 Failures 1 Partial failures 2 Maiden flight 29 January 1984 Last flight 25 June 2000 The Long March 3 (Chinese: 长征三号火箭), also known as the Chang Zheng 3, CZ-3 and LM-3, was a Chinese orbital carrier rocket. It was launched from Launch Complex 1 at the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre. It was a 3-stage rocket, and was mostly used to place DFH-2-class communications satellites into geosynchronous transfer orbits. It first flew on 29 January 1984. It was replaced by the more powerful Long March 3A, which has an improved third stage.
The Long March 3 suffered third stage reliability issues. The upper stage failed to ignite on two launches, and cut off early on a third.
On 15 February, 1996, the Long March 3B rocket carrying Intelsat 708 failed at launch from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center. The rocket veered off course immediately after launch, crashing in the nearby village only 22 seconds later and destroying 80 houses. According to official Chinese reports 6 deaths and 57 injuries resulted from the incident; third-party accounts estimated 100 fatalities.[3]
References
- ^ a b c Mark Wade. "CZ-3". Encyclopedia Astronautica. http://www.astronautix.com/lvs/cz3.htm. Retrieved 2008-04-27.
- ^ a b Gunter Krebs. "CZ-3 (Chang Zheng-3)". Gunter's Space Page. http://space.skyrocket.de/doc_lau_det/cz-3.htm. Retrieved 2008-04-27.
- ^ Select Committee of the United States House of Representatives (3 January 1999). "Satellite Launches in the PRC: Loral". U.S. National Security and Military/Commercial Concerns with the People's Republic of China. http://www.house.gov/coxreport/body/ch6bod.html. Retrieved 16 April 2011.
Expendable launch systems Current Ariane 5 · Atlas V · Delta (II · IV) · Dnepr-1 · GSLV · H-IIA · H-IIB · Kaituozhe-1 · Kosmos-3M · Long March (1D · 2C · 2D · 2F · 3A · 3B · 3C · 4B · 4C) · Minotaur (I · IV) · Naro-1 · Paektusan · Pegasus · Proton (K · M) · PSLV · Rokot · Safir · Shavit · Shtil' · Start-1 · Strela · Soyuz (U · FG · 2) · Taurus · Unha · VLS-1 · Volna · Zenit (2 · 2M · 3SL · 3SLB)
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- - Falcon 1 designed for partial reuse, however recovery failed on the first three flights and remaining vehicles were flown expendably
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