December 1, 2016 - China Launches Communication Satellite Using Long March Rocket

On December 1, 2016, you can trace a pivotal moment in China's space history — the Long March 3B rocket launched the TJS-3 communication satellite from Xichang Space Center, pushing China's annual launch count to a record-breaking 22 orbital missions that year. The roughly 2,700 kg satellite reached geosynchronous transfer orbit without anomalies. What TJS-3 did next — approaching foreign spacecraft and releasing a shadowing subsatellite — reveals a far more complex military story worth exploring.

Key Takeaways

On December 1, 2016, China launched the TJS-3 communication satellite from Xichang Space Center using a Long March rocket.
The launch pushed China's 2016 orbital launch count to 22, breaking its previous record of 19 set in 2015.
TJS-3, weighing approximately 2,700 kilograms, was carried to geostationary transfer orbit via a three-stage Long March 3B or 3C rocket.
China ranked second globally in 2016 with 22 launches, trailing Russia's 23 and surpassing the United States' 18.
Ground tracking confirmed successful orbit insertion, with no anomalies reported during the mission's execution.

Long March 3B: The Rocket That Carried TJS-3

The Long March 3B rocket that carried TJS-3 into orbit stands as one of China's most capable heavy-lift launch vehicles, measuring up to 56.3 meters tall and weighing as much as 459 tons at liftoff.

Its launch architecture combines a three-stage configuration with four strap-on boosters, generating up to 5,924 kN of liftoff thrust.

You'll notice that the rocket's evolution is evident in its hybrid propulsion approach. The first two stages burn hypergolic N2O4/UDMH propellants, while the third stage switches to cryogenic LOX/LH2, achieving a vacuum Isp of 440 seconds.

This design delivers up to 5,500 kg to GTO. Active since 1996 at Xichang Launch Center, the Long March 3B remains China's primary geosynchronous satellite launcher. Xichang Satellite Launch Center has supported a broad range of mission types from this site, including scientific, civil, and military satellite launches.

Across the Long March 3 family, the rocket has demonstrated strong reliability, accumulating 175 total missions with an overall success rate of 96.6 percent.

The Record the December 1, 2016 Launch Set for China

When TJS-3 lifted off on December 1, 2016, it pushed China's annual orbital launch count to 22, breaking the nation's previous record of 19 set in 2015. That milestone reflected China's growing annual tempo, placing it second globally behind Russia's 23 launches and ahead of the United States' 18.

You can see China's launch dominance clearly in the numbers: 25 total Long March family launches that year, with an 80% overall success rate. The December 1 launch also shortened the interval between missions to just 15 days from the prior November 16 liftoff. Just as Marconi's 1901 transatlantic transmission demonstrated that long-range signal propagation was possible across vast distances, China's rapid launch cadence proved that ambitious communication milestones once thought out of reach could become routine achievements.

That pace demonstrated China's accelerating ambition to expand its orbital presence, cementing its position as a serious competitor in the global space launch arena. Earlier that same year, China had launched the Quantum Science Satellite, nicknamed Micius, aboard a Long March 2D rocket to test the viability of quantum communications from space. The satellite, formally known as QUESS, orbited at approximately 500 kilometers altitude and was designed to implement Quantum Key Distribution as its primary initial experiment.

TJS-3 Satellite: China's Military Comms in Orbit

Orbiting silently above Earth, TJS-3—China's Tongxin Jishu Shiyan Weixing-3, or Communication Technology Test Satellite-3—isn't what Beijing's minimal public disclosures suggest. Launched December 25, 2018, this 2,700-kilogram spacecraft carries capabilities far beyond routine communications testing. Here's what you need to know:

It conducted orbital inspection maneuvers, approaching U.S. satellite USA 233 within 3.8 miles on October 31, 2022.
It likely supports signals interception through advanced multi-frequency communications equipment. The interception of signals transmitted over telephone and data lines has roots stretching back to AT&T's Bell 101, which pioneered phone-line data transmission using audio frequency-shift keying to convert digital signals into analog tones as early as 1959.
Its released subsatellite (2018-110C) shadowed TJS-3 before relocating to graveyard orbit in December 2021.
Analysts link it to China's PLA military constellation, identifying it within three classified geostationary satellite classes. TJS-3 was lifted into space aboard a CZ-3C/G2 rocket, launching from the Xichang Space Center's LC-3 launch complex in Sichuan Province.
TJS-3 began a wandering behavior pattern along the geostationary belt on July 5, 2022, drifting east and west to pause near foreign satellites for close inspection, highlighting its role in China's growing space situational awareness efforts.

You're watching China's counterspace ambitions unfold in real time.

How TJS-3 Was Delivered to Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit

Delivering TJS-3 to geosynchronous transfer orbit, China relied on the Long March-3C—a three-stage rocket capable of lifting roughly 3,800 kg to GTO.

You'll see how stage sequencing drove the entire ascent profile: the first stage burned out around 150 seconds post-liftoff, reaching approximately 70 km.

The second stage then circularized a parking orbit near 180 km.

From there, the third stage executed multiple burns, applying core orbital mechanics principles to raise the apogee toward 36,000 km while setting perigee at roughly 180 km—a standard GTO configuration.

Launched from Xichang on December 24, 2018, the mission produced no reported anomalies.

Ground tracking confirmed TJS-3 entered its designated orbit successfully, with China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation declaring the mission complete. The agency, a state-owned main contractor for China's space program, traces its predecessors back to 1956 and was formally founded in July 1999. Much like broadcast engineers who pre-modeled stadium surfaces to anchor virtual graphics precisely to real-world geometry, mission planners relied on detailed pre-launch modeling to lock the rocket's trajectory to the intended orbital insertion parameters. China's Long March vehicles have continued to set milestones in subsequent years, including a three-launch day in December 2025 that extended the country's annual orbital-launch tally to 83 missions.

How This Mission Advanced China's Military Satellite Capability

Though classified as a communications satellite, TJS-3's December 2018 launch aboard a Long March-3C marked a significant step in China's dual-use space ambitions.

You can see these dual use implications clearly when examining what this mission actually achieved:

Validated hardware supporting reconnaissance and surveillance constellations in geosynchronous orbit
Demonstrated reliable YF-100 engine performance for rapid military asset deployment
Proved Wenchang's offshore trajectories work effectively for classified missions
Increased launch cadence capacity, enabling 10-12 annual military satellite replenishments

China's space program doesn't separate civilian and military goals — you're watching both advance simultaneously.

Each successful Long March mission builds operational confidence, reduces failure risks, and positions China to sustain persistent military presence beyond low Earth orbit with increasing independence and precision. The new kerosene and liquid oxygen engines used across this launcher family were developed as part of an eight-year program to replace older rockets relying on toxic hydrazine propellants, reducing both environmental risk and logistical constraints on high-tempo military launch operations. When failures do occur, China's pattern of institutional silence can delay public confirmation for weeks, as seen when a Long March 4C failure in August 2016 went unacknowledged officially until well after the incident. Much like the early spark-gap transmitters that scattered energy broadly and caused widespread signal interference, China's expanding satellite constellation raises growing concerns among neighboring nations about electromagnetic spectrum congestion and communications disruption in contested orbital bands.