Taiyuan Launch Complex 1

Launch Complex 1, also known as Pad 1, is a Long March launch complex at the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Centre.[1] It consists of a single launch pad, which has been used by Long March 2C, Long March 4A, Long March 4B and Long March 4C carrier rockets. Until the activation of Launch Complex 2 in 2008, it was the only launch site for Long March 4 rockets. Long March 4 launches have since also occurred from Jiuquan.[2]

The first spacecraft to be launched from LC-1 was Fengyun 1A, on the maiden flight of the Long March 4A, on 19 November 1999.[3] The Long March 4A was retired in 1990 after just two launches. Between 1995 and 2002 three Long March 1D rockets were launched from Taiyuan on suborbital flights,[1] and orbital launches resumed in the late 1990s when seven Long March 2C/SD rockets were launched; the first on a test flight, and the six subsequent launches each carrying two Iridium satellites. Long March 4 launches resumed in 1999, with the Long March 4B and later the Long March 4C. The most recent launch from the complex was on 22 April 2009, when a Long March 2C launched the Yaogan 6 satellite.[4]