Nicknamed "Ice Arrow," the Long March 7A is a Long March 7 rocket with an optional third stage added to allow the vehicle to take satellites to Geostationary Orbit.

The 7A variant flew for the first time on March 16th, 2020. That mission ended in a launch failure.

The Long March 7A's third stage is the same third stage used by the Long March 3B rocket.

The Long March 7 family of rockets were first proposed in 2008 as a replacement for the Chang Zheng 2F.

Part of the approval of the Long March 7 was that it would become the workhorse of China's launcher fleet, eventually conducting 70% of the nation's launches each year.

It flew for the first time on June 25th, 2016 and has so far only completed three flights, one of those a failure.

Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site

Wenchang is a former suborbital test site located in Wenchang, Hainan, China.

It is China's southernmost launch site. Located on an island, rocket stages are delivered via ship.

Construction of the orbital launch pads began in September 2007, and the launch site was completed in October 2014. The first orbital launch took place on June 25th, 2016.

The site has two active launch pads, with a third planned. LC-1 is used to launch the Chang Zheng 5 rocket while LC-2 is used for the Chang Zheng 7 and 8 rocket families.

Operations at Wenchang are managed by the Xichang Satellite Launch Center.