Long March Rockets - History

History

China launched its first satellite, known as Dong Fang Hong 1 ("the East is Red"), into Earth orbit on its Long March space rocket on April 24, 1970, becoming the fifth nation to achieve independent launch capability. Early launches had a spotty record, focusing on launching of Chinese satellites. Starting in 1990, the Long March rocket entered the international market. However, several setbacks occurred during early 1990s. On January 26, 1995, a Long March 2E rocket veered off course two seconds after take-off from Xichang space center and exploded, killing at least six on the ground. On February 14, 1996, a similar failure during the launch of Intelsat 708. The rocket veered severely off course immediately after clearing the launch tower and crashed in a rural village. Following the disaster, foreign media were sequestered in a bunker for five hours while, some have alleged, the Chinese military attempted to 'clean up' the damage. Officials later blamed the failure on an "unexpected gust of wind" Xinhua News Agency initially reported 6 deaths and 57 injuries.

In the aftermath of the explosion, U.S. satellite makers shared information which allowed the Chinese to determine that the problem was in the welds. This sharing of information was later deemed illegal by the United States, and U.S. satellite maker Loral Space and Communications was fined $14 million by the U.S. government in 2002, while admitting no wrongdoing.

For thirteen years, between August 1996 and August 2009, 75 consecutive successful launches were conducted, ending with the launch of Palapa-D on August 31, 2009, which partially failed due to a third stage malfunction. On October 15, 2003, the Long March 2F rocket successfully launched the Shenzhou 5 spacecraft/orbiter carrying China's first astronaut into space; China thus became the third nation to send a person in space independently, after the Soviet Union/Russia and the United States. A Long March 2F launched the Shenzhou 6 with two astronauts on October 12, 2005. On June 1, 2007, Long March rockets completed the 100th launch. On October 24, 2007, the Long March 3A successfully launched (18:05 GMT+8) the "Chang'e 1" lunar orbiting spacecraft from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center. On September 25, 2008, a Long March 2F launched Shenzhou 7, China's first three-man mission and first EVA mission.