Long March (rocket family)
[1][2] China used the Long March 1 rocket to launch its first satellite, Dong Fang Hong 1 (lit.
"The East is Red 1"), into low Earth orbit on 24 April 1970, becoming the fifth nation to achieve independent launch capability.
After the U.S. Space Shuttle Challenger was destroyed in 1986, a growing commercial backlog gave China the chance to enter the international launch market.
In September 1988, U.S. President Ronald Reagan agreed to allow U.S. satellites to be launched on Chinese rockets.
The Long March 2E was designed with a defective payload fairing, which collapsed when faced with the rocket's excessive vibration.
[6][7] The Long March 3B also experienced a catastrophic failure in 1996, veering off course shortly after liftoff and crashing into a nearby village.
In the Cox Report, the United States Congress accused Space Systems/Loral and Hughes Aircraft Company of transferring information that would improve the design of Chinese rockets and ballistic missiles.
[11] From 2005 to 2012, Long March rockets launched ITAR-free satellites made by the European company Thales Alenia Space.
[15] In 2016, an official at the United States Bureau of Industry and Security confirmed that "no U.S.-origin content, regardless of significance, regardless of whether it is incorporated into a foreign-made item, can go to China".
The European aerospace industry is working on developing replacements for United States satellite components.
From October 1996 to April 2009, the Long March rocket family delivered 75 consecutive successful launches, including several major milestones in space flight: The Long March rockets have subsequently maintained an excellent reliability record.
[needs update] The Long March rockets are organized into several series: The Long March 5, 6 and 7 are a newer generation of rockets sharing the new 1200 kN class YF-100 engines, which burns RP-1 / LOX, unlike earlier 2, 3 and 4 series which uses more expensive and dangerous N2O4 / UDMH propellants.
[25] In early 2017, it was expected to be based on the Long March 7, and have two solid fuel boosters, and first launch by the end of 2018.
[28] The second flight with no side boosters occurred on 27 February 2022, sending a national record of 22 satellites into SSO.
The 2011 proposed design would be a three-staged rocket, with the initial core having a diameter of 10 meters and use a cluster of four engines.
In the face of this, Thales Alenia Space built the Chinasat-6B satellite with no components from the United States whatsoever.
A Chinese Long March 2D launched VRSS-1 (Venezuelan Remote Sensing Satellite-1) of Venezuela, "Francisco de Miranda" on 29 September 2012.
