A Chinese civilian rocket carried out an unscheduled flight over the weekend.
Beijing-based Space Pioneer conducted a “static ignition” test of the first stage of its new Tianlong-3 rocket on Sunday (June 30) in Gongyi, a city of about 800,000 people in central China’s Henan Province.
Space Pioneer briefly ignited the stage’s engines while the rocket remained anchored to the launch pad — as it was meant to do anyway — but the anchoring mechanism failed on Sunday, sending the rocket hurtling off in a dramatic and frightening surprise mission.
Wow. Apparently this is a static test launch of the first stage of the Tianlong-3 rocket that China’s Space Pioneer was supposed to conduct today. This one’s not static, it’s catastrophic. The company was targeting an orbital launch within the next few months. https://t.co/BY9MgJeE7A pic.twitter.com/L6ronwLW1NJune 30, 2024
The mission was also short, lasting just 50 seconds, when the Tianlong 3 crashed into a hilly area near Gongyi, emitting a huge fireball that was captured on video by some bystanders.
Henan province’s emergency management authority told Shanghai-based outlet The Paper that no one was injured in the blast.
Related: China’s space pioneer reaches orbit with Tianlong 2 rocket launch (VIDEO)
Space Pioneer has a track record in spaceflight. Its Tianlong 2 rocket reached orbit in April 2023, making it the first privately-owned Chinese launch vehicle to do so. Tianlong 3 is expected to be a major leap for the company. According to SpaceNews, the rocket is modeled after SpaceX’s Falcon 9 and, like its flagship rocket, is planned to be partially reusable.
Tianlong-3 is significantly more powerful than previous spacecraft and, SpaceNews reports, will be able to carry 17 tonnes of payload into low Earth orbit (LEO), compared to Tianlong-2’s limit of around 2 tonnes.
Looking at it from another perspective, I hope there are no casualties. This is really amazing. And this is phenomenal because Space Pioneer is already in orbit with Tenryu 2. https://t.co/QlQT13FNtI pic.twitter.com/F58tJhVoRJJune 30, 2024
Tianlong-3 is still under development, and it was not immediately clear how Sunday’s accident would affect the rocket’s testing activities or future schedule.
Incidentally, “Tianlong” translates to “heavenly dragon.” The name is similar to the name of the Chinese low-orbit space station “Tiangong,” which means “heavenly palace.”
