Footage on Chinese social media showed the rocket hitting the ground and exploding. … [+]
What was meant to be a routine static launch of a rocket mounted on a ground test stand was instead accompanied by the detachment of the Cheonlong-3’s first-stage booster, which launched on Sunday.
The unscheduled launch in China’s Henan province lasted about a minute before a large explosion occurred on a nearby hill about a mile away from the test stand, Space News reported.
The disastrous test results were filmed and uploaded to Chinese social media.
The rocket stage is shown leaving the ground and rising into the air under its own power for about 30 seconds, before rolling over and beginning its free fall to the ground. About a minute into the video, a loud explosion can be heard and a large fireball can be seen on the slope of a nearby hill.
The incident was photographed from various angles and from nearby settlements.
According to a statement from Space Pioneer, the private Chinese space company that carried out the test, an investigation found that no casualties were reported from the accident. The company said the test site was actually far from the nearby city of Gongyi, where an explosion could have been more easily and dramatically seen. The company blamed the accident on a structural defect in the part connecting the booster to the test stand.
The test is part of preparations for the Tianlong-3 orbital insertion mission, which rivals SpaceX’s Falcon 9.
Space junk from Chinese missions and failed launch phases has a bad habit of falling into China’s rural areas – just last week a rocket was spotted dropping toxic chemicals into a populated area.
