The Long March 4B (), also known as the Chang Zheng 4B, CZ-4B and LM-4B is a Chinese expendable orbital

Launch vehicle A launch vehicle or carrier rocket is a rocket designed to carry a payload ( spacecraft or satellites) from the Earth's surface to outer space. Most launch vehicles operate from a launch pads, supported by a launch control center and ...

. Launched from Launch Complex 1 at the

Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center The Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center (TSLC) also known as ''Base 25'' (), is a People's Republic of China space and defense launch facility (spaceport). It is situated in Kelan County, Xinzhou, Shanxi Province and is the second of four laun ...

, it is a 3-stage launch vehicle, used mostly to place satellites into

low Earth orbit A low Earth orbit (LEO) is an orbit around Earth with a period of 128 minutes or less (making at least 11.25 orbits per day) and an eccentricity less than 0.25. Most of the artificial objects in outer space are in LEO, with an altitude never mor ...

and Sun-synchronous orbits. It was first launched on 10 May 1999, with the

FY-1C Fēngyún (FY, ) are China's meteorological satellites. Launched since 1988 into polar sun-synchronous and geosynchronous orbit, each three-axis stabilized Fengyun satellite is built by the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology (SAST) and op ...

weather satellite, which would later be used in the

2007 Chinese anti-satellite missile test On 11 January 2007, China conducted an anti-satellite missile test. A Chinese weather satellite—the FY-1C (COSPAR 1999-025A) polar orbit satellite of the Fengyun series, at an altitude of , with a mass of —was destroyed by a kinetic kill v ...

. The Chang Zheng 4B experienced its only launch failure on 9 December 2013, with the loss of the

CBERS-3 China–Brazil Earth Resources Satellite 3 (CBERS-3), also known as Ziyuan I-03 or Ziyuan 1D, was a remote sensing satellite intended for operation as part of the China–Brazil Earth Resources Satellite program between the Chinese Center for R ...

Launch Statistics

List of launches

See also

References