Long March 2D rocket conducts 100th successful flight

The Long March 2D, one of the most reliable and successful models of carrier rockets in China, conducted its 100th flight on Monday morning from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Sichuan province, sending two experimental satellites into space.

The rocket blasted off at 11 am from a mountain-surrounded service tower, and then successfully placed the Shiyan 30A and 30B satellites into their preset orbital positions, according to China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp, the launch mission's contractor.

All of the Long March 2D type's 100 launches have been successful. It is known as a "gold-medal rocket model" in China's space industry.

Those missions deployed a total of 316 scientific, remote-sensing, technology demonstration and other kinds of satellites into space.

In addition to Chinese satellites, the model has also lifted satellites for a number of foreign clients from countries such as Turkiye, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, the Netherlands, Argentina and Pakistan.

Designed and manufactured by the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology, a CASC subsidiary, the Long March 2D made its maiden flight in August 1992, transporting a recoverable Earth-observation satellite into orbit.

The 40.6-meter rocket has a diameter of 3.35 meters and a liftoff weight of 251 metric tons.

Its typical tasks are to transport satellites to low-Earth or sun-synchronous orbits.

It is capable of sending a 1.3-ton spacecraft to a sun-synchronous orbit with an altitude of 700 kilometers, or satellites with a combined weight of 4 tons to a low-Earth orbit.

Besides its reliability, the rocket also features technologies that enable it to de-orbit after putting payloads in orbit, contributing to the mitigation of space debris and sparing of orbital resources, designers said.

Monday's launch has made Long March 2D the second rocket model to have reached 100 flights, following the Long March 3B that achieved such a feat in December 2024. It also marked the 598th mission of the Long March family and China's 60th rocket launch in 2025.

In June 2023, the model's 76th flight transported 41 satellites into their orbital positions, setting a national record for the most spacecraft launched in a single mission.