Long March 3

The China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology’s Long March 3B/E failed about twelve hours before Galactic Energy’s Ceres-2 launch.

The first and second stages of the Long March 3B/E performed normally while an anomaly occurred during the third-stage flight segment, resulting in mission failure.

Two partial Long March 3B third-stage failures occurred in August 2009 due to an engine burn through and in June 2017 due to a loss of roll control.

The Long March 3B/E is 56.3 meters tall on the launch pad and weighs 458,970 kilograms when fully fueled.

Combined, the four boosters and the first stage of the Long March 3B/E generate 590 tons of thrust.

The second stage of the Long March 3B/E is powered by one YF-22E main engine and four YF-23F vernier engines burning dinitrogen tetroxide and unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine to generate 81 tons of thrust.

The first stage of the Long March 3B/E is powered by four YF-21C engines burning dinitrogen tetroxide and unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine to generate 302 tons of thrust.

The Long March 3B failed to deliver the payload, Shijian-32, to its planned orbit.

A Long March 3B rocket lifted off from Xichang at 16:55 UTC.

The Long March 3B/E launched thirteen times during efforts to increase its flight rate through 2025.

The Long March 3B/E payload capacity is 5,500 kilograms to geostationary transfer orbit.

The Long March 3B/E uses dinitrogen tetroxide and unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine for the first two stages and boosters, and liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen for the third stage.

The Long March 3B/E payload capacity is 11,500 kilograms to low Earth orbit.

Each booster on the Long March 3B/E is powered by one YF-25 engine burning dinitrogen tetroxide and unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine to generate 72 tons of thrust.

The Long March 3B/E payload capacity is 7,100 kilograms to sun-synchronous orbit.

The previous outright failure of a Long March 3B/E occurred in April 2020 while carrying Indonesia’s Palapa-N1 due to an abnormal startup in one of the third-stage engines.

Every Long March 3B launch has occurred from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southern Sichuan province.

A Long March 3B/E lifted off on January 17 at 00:55 China Standard Time (January 16 at 16:55 UTC) from Launch Complex 3 at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center.