Long March 3

The third stage of the Long March 3B/E is powered by two YF-75 engines burning liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen to generate 17 tons of thrust.

The first Long March 3B failure occurred on the rocket’s debut flight in February 1996 while carrying the American Intelsat-708.

Vehicle quality control for Long March 3B/E operations was split between Beijing for monitoring manufacturing defects and Xichang for catching defects and swapping hardware during launch processes.

The January 2026 mission was the 115th launch of a Long March 3B vehicle.

With flight hardware distributed between Beijing and Xichang, return-to-flight preparations for the Long March 3B/E could take only a few months.

Other Long March vehicles that use the same third-stage as the Long March 3B/E include the Long March 3A, Long March 3C, Long March 7A, and Long March 8.

A Long March 3B lifted off from Xichang at 1655 UTC on January 16, 2026.

The previous return-to-flight for a Long March 3B/E in 2020 took seventy-six days.

The payload fairing of the Long March 3B/E has a diameter of 4.2 meters.

The first and second stages of the Long March 3B/E have a diameter of 3.35 meters.

The third stage of the Long March 3B/E has a diameter of 3.0 meters.

Long March 3B successfully launched FengYun-4C from Xichang at 16:07 UTC on December 26.

The Shijian-32 satellite was lost due to a 3rd stage anomaly during the Long March 3B launch.

The Long March 3B/E experienced a mission failure during one of its planned burns, with the anomaly occurring in the third-stage flight segment.

The Long March 3B rocket is scheduled to launch towards Geostationary Transfer Orbit (GTO) on January 16, 2026 at approximately 16:55 UTC.

The Long March 3B is expected to launch towards Geostationary Transfer Orbit (GTO).

A Long March 3B launch is scheduled for January 16, 2026, at approximately 16:55 UTC.

China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT) aims to conduct more than 15 Long March 3B launches per year.