The Long March 1 (é¿å¾Âä¸Âå·), also known as the Changzheng-1 (CZ-1), was the first member of China's Long March rocket family. Like the U.S.'s and the Soviet Union's first rockets, it was based on a class of ballistic missiles, namely the DF-3 class.
Development started in January 1965 as the Seventh Ministry of Machine Building issued a design task. The two stage liquid fueled DF-4 was modified by adding a third stage in order to reach the desired orbit. Long March 1's first flight launched China's first satellite Dong Fang Hong 1 to space on 24 April 1970. The rocket was operational during 1970âÂÂ1971. Wang Xiji was the chief designer of the rocket.