Reliability Status of China's LM-Family Launch Vehicles

摘要

China's first satellite, named DFH-1, was successfully put into orbit using its first LM-1 launch vehicle on April 24, 1970. Since then, a series of LM launch vehicles have been developed, forming a family of launch vehicles meeting diversified payload requirements. Till today, 8 kinds of vehicles from the family, namely LM-2, LM-2C/SD, LM-2D, LM-2E, LM-3, LM-3A, LM-3B, and LM-4, have been put into service; several of them have offered services for foreign customers. The maximum LEO and GTO capacities of LM-family launch vehicles have been up to 9200 and 4800 kilograms, respectively. According to the most recent statistics, as that by the end of 1998, there had been a total of 55 launches with 49 successes, the overall reliability reaching 0.891.