Tag: Long March 3B

China today successfully launched a communications satellite, its Long March 3B rocket lifting off from its Xichang spaceport in southwest China.

As is usual for its state-run press, no information was provided about the satellite or where the rocket’s lower stages crashed inside China.

The leaders in the 2025 launch race:

76 SpaceX
35 China
8 Rocket Lab
7 Russia

SpaceX still leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 76 to 57.

China today successfully launched a test technology satellite for doing “multi-band and high-speed communication technology validation tests, possibly for future large internet/communications constellations, its Long March 3B rocket lifting off from its Xichang spaceport in southwest China.

No word on where the rocket’s lower stages and four strap-on boosters, all using very toxic hypergolic fuels, crashed inside China.

The leaders in the 2025 launch race:

40 SpaceX
19 China
5 Rocket Lab
5 Russia

SpaceX still leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 40 to 33.

SpaceX is no longer the only entity that has launched a successful orbital launch this year. Early today China successfully placed an “experimental” satellite into orbit, its Long March 3B rocket lifting off from the Xichang spaceport in southwest China.

No word on where the rocket’s lower stages, using very toxic hypergolic fuels crashed within China. As for the satellite, China’s state run press merely said that it “was built by its subsidiary Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology and is tasked with verifying orbital refueling and life-extension technologies.”

The 2025 launch race:

2 SpaceX
1 China

According to China’s uninformative state-run press, it today launched “a test satellite for communication technology,” its Long March 3B rocket lifting off from its Xichang spaceport in southwest China.

No other details about the satellite were released. Nor did the state-run press provide any information about where the rocket’s lower stages, using very toxic hypergolic fuel, crashed inside China.

As is usual for China, it is doing a lot of launches at the end of the year. Though weather might be a factor, I also suspect it is the ordinary “use-it-or-lose-it” symptom of a government-run communist society. Budgets are set for the year. Government agencies find that they better launch or they will lose that budgeted amount in the next year’s budget.

This might not apply to China but if so it would explain its strange end-of-year launch pattern.

The leaders in the 2024 launch race:

132 SpaceX
64 China
16 Russia
13 Rocket Lab

American private enterprise still leads the rest of the world combined in successful launches 151 to 96, while SpaceX by itself leads the entire world, including American companies, 132 to 115.

China today successfully launched a communications satellite designed according to its state-run press to test new communication technologies, its Long March 3B rocket lifting off from its Xichang spaceport in southwest China.

No word on where the rocket’s lower stages and four strap-on boosters, all using toxic hypergolic fuels, crashed inside China.

The leaders in the 2024 launch race:

124 SpaceX
57 China
15 Russia
13 Rocket Lab

American private enterprise still leads the rest of the world combined in successful launches 143 to 85, while SpaceX by itself leads the entire world, including American companies, 124 to 104.

China today successfully launched what its state-run press claimed was “high-orbit internet services satellite,” its Long March 3B rocket lifting off from its Xichang spaceport in southwest China.

No word on where the rocket’s lower stages and strap-on boosters crashed inside China. All use toxic hypergolic fuels.

As for the payload, this tweet from a independent reporter on China’s space program questions the claim that it is a communications satellite. Since China has told us nothing, we really know nothing. However, if it was really what its state-run press says it is, China would normally release a bit more information.

The leaders in the 2024 launch race:

96 SpaceX
45 China
11 Russia
11 Rocket Lab

American private enterprise still leads the rest of the world combined in successful launches 113 to 68, while SpaceX by itself now leads the entire world, including American companies, 96 to 85.

China this evening (May 9th in China) successfully launched an earth observation satellite into orbit, its Long March 3B rocket lifting off from its Xichang spaceport in the southwest of China.

No word on where the first stage crashed in China, though there was a report in the Philippines that an upper stage landed near Rozul Reef and Patag Island in the West Philippine Sea. All the stages use toxic hypergolic fuels.

The leaders in the 2024 launch race:

48 SpaceX
20 China
6 Russia
5 Rocket Lab

American private enterprise still leads the world combined in successful launches, 55 to 32. SpaceX by itself still leads the rest of the world, including other American companies, 48 to 39.

China today successfully placed two more of its BeiDou GPS-type satellites into orbit, its Long March 3B rocket lifting off from its Xichang spaceport in the southwest of China.

This footage shows that the rocket’s core stage crashed near homes in China. No word on where the four strap-on boosters and second stage crashed. All use very toxic hypergolic fuels.

This launch continues China’s annual rush of launches at the end of the year. Since everything is owned and run by the Chinese government, one wonders if this pattern is because of the typical government mentality that requires agencies to rush to spend a lot at the end of each year so as to make sure their budgets are not cut.

The leaders in the 2023 launch race:

94 SpaceX
64 China
18 Russia
8 Rocket Lab
7 India

American private enterprise still leads China in successful launches 108 to 64, and the entire world combined 108 to 100. SpaceX in turn trails the rest of the world (excluding other American companies) 94 to 100.

China last night successfully put a geosynchronous communications satellite into orbit, its Long March 3B rocket lifting off from its Xichang spaceport in southern China.

No word on where the rocket’s core stage, second stage, and four side boosters crashed inside China. All use extremely toxic hypergolic fuels, so anyone approaching any wreckage risks serious health issues.

The leaders in the 2023 launch race:

80 SpaceX
51 China
14 Russia
7 Rocket Lab
7 India

American private enterprise still leads China 92 to 51 in successful launches, and the entire world combined 92 to 80. SpaceX by itself is once again tied with the rest of the world (excluding American companies) 80 to 80, but this will probably change later today, when the company launches a cargo Dragon to ISS. NASA’s live stream is here.

During a May 17, 2023 launch of a Long March 3B rocket, China tested the use of parachutes to better control the descent and landing of the rocket’s boosters.

The system was used on a Long March-3B rocket carrying a BeiDou navigation satellite into orbit on May 17 from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Sichuan Province, according to the academy.

Developed by the academy, the parachute brought down the rocket boosters to a predetermined location, narrowing the range of the landing area by 80 percent.

Based on the limited information provided by China’s state-run press, it appears this system was only tested on the four strap-on boosters, not on the first stage core. Regardless, such a system, which appears to be a copy of the system Rocket Lab has been developing for the last four years, will significantly reduce the hazards to Chinese inhabitants who live in the drop zones of these rockets.

Note too that China previously tried to copy SpaceX’s grid fins. Apparently its engineers found it difficult if not impossible to reverse engineer that concept, so they apparently decided to try copying Rocket Lab’s parachute methods instead.

China early on Wednesday, May 17, 2023 (China time) used its Long March 3B to successfully launch a GPS-type satellite, adding one more satellite to its constellation of similar satellites.

As the launch was from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in the interior, the rocket’s core stage and four strap-on boosters crashed somewhere inside China. No word on whether they landed near habitable areas.

The leaders in the 2023 launch race:

31 SpaceX
18 China
6 Russia
4 Rocket Lab

American private enterprise still leads China 35 to 18 in the national rankings, and the entire world combined 35 to 30. SpaceX by itself trails the entire world, including other American companies, 31 to 34 in launches this year.

China today successfully used its Long March 3B rocket, launching from an interior spaceport, to place a satellite into orbit to provide “high-speed broadband access services for fixed terminals, vehicle/ship/airborne terminals.”

Little other information has been released, but that description sounds remarkably similar to what OneWeb’s satellite constellation does.

No word on whether the rocket’s lower stages crashed near habitable areas.

The 2023 launch race:

12 SpaceX
6 China
2 Russia
1 Rocket Lab
1 Japan
1 India

American private enterprise still leads China 13 to 6, and the entire world combined 13 to 10. SpaceX alone leads the entire world combined 12 to 10.

China today successfully used its Long March 3B rocket to launch from an interior spaceport what its state-run press labeled an “experimental satellite.”

No word on where the rocket’s strap-on side boosters or first stage crashed within China.

The leaders in the 2022 launch race:

62 China
60 SpaceX
21 Russia
9 Rocket Lab
8 ULA

The U.S. still leads China 84 to 62 in the national rankings, but trails the entire world combined 94 to 84.

This launch cements for China the top spot in launches over SpaceX, since SpaceX only has one more launch planned in 2022, scheduled for just before midnight tonight.

Using its Long March 3B rocket, China today launched the third satellite in the second generation of communication satellites used by its space program.

All told China now has seven satellites in this constellation, giving it a great deal of redundancy.

The leaders in the 2022 launch race:

29 SpaceX
22 China
9 Russia
4 Rocket Lab
4 ULA

American private enterprise still leads China 41 to 22 in the national rankings, and the entire world 41 to 37.