The Long March 3 , also known as the Changzheng 3, CZ-3 and LM-3, was a Chinese orbital carrier rocket. It was launched from Launch Area 3 at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center. It was a 3-stage rocket, and was mostly used to place DFH-2-class communications satellites into geosynchronous transfer orbits. It was complemented and later replaced by the more powerful Long March 3A, which has an improved third stage.