Long March 2F

The Long March 2F (Chinese: 长征二号F火箭), also known as the CZ-2F, LM-2F and Shenjian (神箭, “the Divine Arrow”), is a Chinese orbital carrier rocket, part of the Long March 2 rocket family. Designed to launch crewed Shenzhou spacecrafts, the Long March 2F is a human-rated two-stage version of the Long March 2E rocket, which in turn was based on the Long March 2C launch vehicle. It is launched from complex SLS at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. The Long March 2F made its maiden flight on 19 November 1999, with the Shenzhou 1 spacecraft. After the flight of Shenzhou 3, CPC General Secretary and President Jiang Zemin named the rocket “Shenjian” meaning “Divine Arrow”.

On 29 December 2002, a Long March 2F launched Shenzhou 4 for a final uncrewed test of the Shenzhou spacecraft for the upcoming flight of the first crewed mission. Until then, all missions were uncrewed.

On 15 October 2003, a Long March 2F launched Shenzhou 5, China’s maiden crewed mission and achieved its first human spaceflight. Since then, the rocket has launched eleven more missions into orbit with the latest being Shenzhou 13.