Long March 4A

	Rendering of Long March 4A
Function	Carrier rocket
Manufacturer	CALT
Country of origin	China
Size
Height	41.9 metres (137 ft)
Diameter	3.35 metres (11.0 ft)
Mass	249,000 kilograms (549,000 lb)
Stages	3
Capacity
Payload to LEO
Mass	4,000 kilograms (8,800 lb)
Payload to SSO
Mass	1,500 kilograms (3,300 lb)
Associated rockets
Family	Long March
Derivative work	Long March 4B
Launch history
Status	Retired
Launch sites	LA-7, TSLC
Total launches	2
Success(es)	2
First flight	6 September 1988
Last flight	3 September 1990
	[edit on Wikidata]

The Long March 4A (Chinese: 长征四号甲火箭), 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 orbital carrier rocket. It was launched from Launch Area 7 at the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center. 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 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.^[3] 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, which first flew in 1999. The Long March 4B offers a more powerful third stage, and a larger payload fairing.

List of launches

Flight No.	Date (UTC)	Launch site	Payload	Orbit	Result
1	September 6, 1988 20:30	LA-7, TSLC	Fengyun 1A	SSO	Success
2	September 3, 1990 00:53	LA-7, TSLC	Fengyun 1B	SSO	Success

References

^ ^a ^b ^c Mark Wade. "CZ-4A". Encyclopedia Astronautica. Archived from the original on 2008-02-26. Retrieved 2008-04-27.
^ ^a ^b Gunter Krebs. "CZ-4 (Chang Zheng-4)". Gunter's Space Page. Retrieved 2008-04-27.
^ History of On-orbit Satellite Fragmentations (PDF) (Report) (16th ed.). NASA Orbital Debris Program Office. 2008. p. 28. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2024-07-22.

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[EA-1] Mark Wade. "CZ-4A". Encyclopedia Astronautica. Archived from the original on 2008-02-26. Retrieved 2008-04-27.

[GSP-2] Gunter Krebs. "CZ-4 (Chang Zheng-4)". Gunter's Space Page. Retrieved 2008-04-27.

[3] History of On-orbit Satellite Fragmentations (PDF) (Report) (16th ed.). NASA Orbital Debris Program Office. 2008. p. 28. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2024-07-22.

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v t e Orbital launch systems
List of orbital launch systems Comparison of orbital launch systems
Current	Angara 1.2 A5 Ariane 6 Atlas V Ceres 1 1S Chollima-1 Electron Falcon 9 Block 5 Falcon Heavy Firefly Alpha Gravity-1 GSLV H-IIA H3 Hyperbola-1 Jielong 1 3 KAIROS^† Kaituozhe 2 Kinetica 1 Kuaizhou 1 1A 11 Long March 2C 2D 2F 3A 3B/E 3C 4B 4C 5 5B 6 6A 7 7A 8 11 11H LVM3 Minotaur I IV V C Nuri OS-M1^† Pegasus XL Proton-M PSLV Qaem 100 Qased RS1^† Shavit 2 Simorgh SLS Block 1 Soyuz-2 2.1a / STA 2.1b / STB 2-1v SSLV Starship Tianlong-2 Unha Vega C Vulcan Centaur Zhuque 2
In development	Antares 330 Bloostar Cyclone-4M Deca Epsilon S Eris Gravity-2 Hyperbola-2 Irtysh Kuaizhou 21 31 Long March 9 10 12 Miura 5 MLV Neutron New Glenn New Line 1 NGLV Nova OS-M 2 4 Orbex Prime Pallas-1 Red Dwarf SLS Block 1B Block 2 Soyuz-7 Terran R Tianlong-3 VLM Vega E Zero Zhuque 3 Zuljanah
Retired	Antares 110 120 130^† 230 230+ Ariane 1 2 3 4 5 ASLV Athena I II Atlas B D E/F G H I II III LV-3B SLV-3 Able^† Agena Centaur Black Arrow Conestoga^† Delta A B C D E G J L M N 0100 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 II III IV IV Heavy Diamant Dnepr Energia Epsilon Europa I^† II^† Falcon 1 Falcon 9 v1.0 v1.1 v1.2 "Full Thrust" Feng Bao 1 GSLV Mk I H-I H-II H-IIB Juno I Juno II Kaituozhe-1 Kosmos original 1 2/2I 3 3M Lambda 4S LauncherOne Long March 1 1D^† 2A 2E 3 3B 4A Mu 4S 3C 3H 3S 3SII V N1^† N-I N-II Naro-1 Paektusan^† Pilot-2^† R-7 Luna Molniya M L Polyot Soyuz original FG L M U U2 Soyuz/Vostok Sputnik Voskhod Vostok L K 2 2M R-29 Shtil' Volna^† Rocket 3 Safir 1 1A 1B Saturn I IB V Scout X-1 Blue Scout II^† X-2^† X-2M X-3 X-3M X-4 X-2B^† B A B-1 D-1 A-1 E-1 F-1 G-1 Shavit original 1 SLV Space Shuttle SPARK^† Sparta SS-520 Start-1 Terran 1^† Thor Able Ablestar 1 2 Agena A B D Burner 1 2 Delta DSV-2U Thorad-Agena SLV-2G SLV-2H Titan II GLV IIIA IIIB IIIC IIID IIIE 34D 23G CT-3 IV Tsyklon R-36-O original 2 3 Universal Rocket UR-500 Proton Proton-K Rokot Strela Vanguard Vega original VLS-1^† Zenit 2 2M 2FG 3SL 3SLB 3F Zhuque 1^†
Classes	Sounding rocket Small-lift launch vehicle Medium-lift launch vehicle Heavy-lift launch vehicle Super heavy-lift launch vehicle
This Template lists historical, current, and future space rockets that at least once attempted (but not necessarily succeeded in) an orbital launch or that are planned to attempt such a launch in the future Symbol ^† indicates past or current rockets that attempted orbital launches but never succeeded (never did or has yet to perform a successful orbital launch)

v t e Long March (rocket family)
Rockets	Feng Bao 1 Long March 1 1D Long March 2 2A 2C 2D 2E 2F Long March 3 3A 3B 3B/E 3C Long March 4 4A 4B 4C Long March 5 5B Long March 6 6A 6C Long March 7 7A Long March 8 8A Long March 9 Long March 10 Long March 11 Long March 12
Launch sites	Jiuquan Taiyuan Wenchang Commercial Xichang
Manufacturers	China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology
Designers	Wang Xiji
List of Long March launches