A commercial Chinese rocket was accidentally launched during a ground test on Sunday, climbing into the air before crashing into a nearby mountain and bursting into flames, the private company that owns the missile said he said.
Due to a “structural failure”, the Tianlong-3 rocket separated from its test platform while its propulsion system was being tested and took off from its launch site, the rocket’s owner Space Pioneer said in a statement. The accident occurred at 3:43 a.m. local time Sunday at a test plant in Gongyi city in central China’s Henan province, the statement said.
After launch, the onboard computer automatically shut down and the missile crashed into a hilly area about a mile from the test site, the statement said. No one was injured, the statement said, adding that the crash site was far from residential areas and the company had worked with local authorities before the test to evacuate nearby areas.
Videos posted by Chinese media and social media appeared to show the rocket climbing before losing power and plunging, exploding on a nearby hill.
Gongyi Municipal Government told a social media statement that the crash of the rocket caused a fire, which had been extinguished by Sunday afternoon.
The accident appears to have occurred during a static fire test, when the engines ignite as if for takeoff, but the rocket remains secured to the ground, said Brad Tucker, an astrophysicist at the Australian National University who reviewed video of the accident. It was a very common test, he said, adding that although the rocket is often done horizontally, some companies, including SpaceX, did the test vertically.
“It’s so common that it’s surprising that this kind of failure happened,” said Dr. Tucker, adding that the only other comparable accident he knew of occurred in 1952 when a The US Viking 8 rocket was released during a static fire test and landed in the desert five miles away.
“A lot of things would probably have to go wrong for this failure to happen the way it did,” said Dr. Tucker, adding that although China’s national space program was advanced, its commercial space industry is quite young.
This commercial industry has expanded rapidly in recent years alongside the government’s growing space ambitions. This year, for the first time, commercial spaceflight was listed as an emerging industry to be actively promoted in the Chinese government annual labor reportthe key policy document outlining the government’s priorities for the year.
Space Pioneer, also known as Beijing Tianbing Technology, is a major player in this industry. The Tianlong-3 rocket, the most powerful launch vehicle currently under development in China, is purpose-built to help build the country’s satellite internet system, according to Space Pioneer.
Last month, China became the first country to discover rock samples from the far side of the moon. It aims to put a man on the moon before 2030, which would make it the second nation to do so after the United States. And he has successfully launched a mission to Mars and has plans for one future visit to asteroids.
Last year, Space Pioneer’s Tianlong-2 — the predecessor to the Tianlong-3 — became the country’s first commercial liquid-fuel rocket to successfully enter orbit. according to state media.
According to Space Pioneer, Tianlong-3 is comparable to SpaceX’s Falcon 9, the first reusable orbital-class rocket. Designed to carry crew and cargo into Earth orbit, the Falcon 9 became the first commercial rocket to launch astronauts into orbit in 2020.
