Long March (rocket family)

The Long March rocket family (Chinese: 长征运载火箭, romanized: Cháng Zhēng yùnzài huǒjiàn, lit. 'Long March launch vehicles') is a family of expendable launch system rockets operated by the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation. The rockets are named after the Chinese Red Army's 1934–35 Long March military retreat during the Chinese Civil War.

The Long March series has performed more than 600 launches, including missions to low Earth orbit, Sun-synchronous orbit, geostationary transfer orbit, and Earth-Moon transfer orbit. The Long March 2F is a human-rated vehicle which launches the Shenzhou craft. The Long March 5 has the greatest payload, at 25,000 kilograms to low Earth orbit, placing it in the heavy-lift launch vehicle class. It has launched the Tianwen-1 Mars probe and the Chang'e 6 and Chang'e 5 Moon probes. The Long March 10 is undergoing development and component testing as a launch vehicle for the Mengzhou and Lanyue crewed lunar vehicles.

The new-generation carrier rockets, Long March 5, 6, 7, 8, and 10 use a liquid oxygen with a liquid hydrogen or kerosene fuel, while the older Long March 2, 3, and 4 use the hypergolic mixture of unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine and dinitrogen tetroxide.

The early rockets in the family were derived from China's Dongfeng program of nuclear-capable ballistic missiles. From 1988 to 1998, Long March rockets launched US commercial satellites, however failures carrying Apstar 2 and Intelsat 708 caused controversy in the US, resulting in such launches being prohibited under the US International Traffic in Arms Regulations.

Long March rockets typically launch commercial satellites from Xichang and Wenchang launch sites, military-related satellites and crewed craft from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, and Sun-synchronous satellties from Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center.