The Long March 4A (), also known as the Changzheng 4A, CZ-4A and LM-4A, sometimes misidentified as the Long March 4 due to the lack of any such designated rocket, was a Chinese

orbit In celestial mechanics, an orbit (also known as orbital revolution) is the curved trajectory of an object such as the trajectory of a planet around a star, or of a natural satellite around a planet, or of an artificial satellite around an ...

carrier rocket A launch vehicle is typically a rocket-powered vehicle designed to carry a payload (a crewed spacecraft or satellites) from Earth's surface or lower atmosphere to outer space. The most common form is the ballistic missile-shaped multistag ...

. It was launched from Launch Area 7 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 was a three-stage rocket, used for two launches in 1988 and 1990. On its maiden flight, on 6 September 1988, it placed the FY-1A

weather satellite A weather satellite or meteorological satellite is a type of Earth observation satellite that is primarily used to monitor the weather and climate of the Earth. Satellites are mainly of two types: polar orbiting (covering the entire Earth asyn ...

into orbit. On its second, and final, flight it launched another weather satellite, FY-1B. A month after the launch of FY-1B, the third-stage of the CZ-4A launch vehicle exploded in a 895 x 880 km orbit, creating more than 100 pieces of space debris. This incident led to a redesign of the rocket to include a residual propellant venting system. A venting system was not included in the 4A because of the concern that it would damage the satellite. It was replaced by a derivative, the

Long March 4B The Long March 4B (), also known as the Chang Zheng 4B, CZ-4B, and LM-4B, is a Chinese expendable orbit, orbital launch vehicle. Launched from Launch Complex 1 at the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center, it is a 3-stage launch vehicle, used mostly ...

, which first flew in 1999. The Long March 4B offers a more powerful third stage, and a larger payload fairing.

List of launches

References

Long March (rocket family) Spacecraft that broke apart in space {{china-stub