June 30th, 2024

Chinese rocket static-fire test results in unintended launch and explosion

A static-fire test of Tianlong-3 by Space Pioneer led to an unintended launch and explosion in Henan province. No casualties reported. Incident may delay orbital launch, impacting China's space industry.

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Chinese rocket static-fire test results in unintended launch and explosion

A static-fire test of the Tianlong-3 first stage by Chinese company Space Pioneer resulted in an unintended launch and a subsequent explosion at a test facility in Gongyi country, Henan province. The rocket stage, intended for an orbital launch in the future, unexpectedly took off during the test, climbed into the sky, and then returned to Earth, causing a significant explosion upon impact. Fortunately, there were no reported casualties. Space Pioneer attributed the incident to a structural failure at the connection between the rocket body and the test bench. The company plans to analyze the situation and resume testing with new hardware. The failure could potentially lead to delays in the Tianlong-3 orbital launch attempt and impact China's commercial space industry. The incident highlights the risks associated with rocket development and testing, with Space Pioneer aiming to address the issue and continue its operations.

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Link Icon 2 comments
By @alephnerd - 6 months
I never understood why Chinese testing sites were always situated so close to semi-urban areas.

You never see similar videos in India despite also having spaceports near small towns and villages, and also having failures.

Ik China has hesitancy around Coastal launches but Ningxia, Gansu, Xinjiang, Qinghai, etc are all much less dense than Guangxi or Henan

(Edit: never mind - forgot that USSR-PRC relations were extremely bad, and all those regions were within signals capturing range of the USSR)

By @aaron695 - 6 months
Lots more videos here if you enjoy watching the same thing blow up from different angles... which who the fuck doesn't -

https://m.weibo.cn/search?containerid=231522type%3D1%26t%3D1...