- Chinese space company Tianbing Aerospace Technology said it accidentally launched a rocket it was testing.
- The Tianlong-3 is designed as a rival to SpaceX’s Falcon 9, with a similar takeoff weight and recovery flight.
- But a stationary engine test on Sunday saw the rocket take off and crash into a mountain.
A Chinese space company announced Sunday that it accidentally launched its Tianlong-3 rocket during a test, causing the vehicle to take off and crash into a nearby mountain.
In a statement, Beijing-based Tianbing Aerospace Technology said it was conducting a first-stage test of the rocket’s power system and that a “structural failure” caused the Tianlong-3 to separate from its ramp launch.
If the test had been successful, the Tianlong-3 would have remained stationary on the launch pad while its engines were ignited.
Several people in the nearby city of Gongyi in Henan province filmed the accidental launch.
The footage shows the rocket roaring into the sky and leaving a trail of black smoke before falling and hitting the ground in a spectacular fireball explosion.
“The rocket body disintegrated after falling into the mountain,” Tianbing said in a statement.
Local authorities wrote that the explosion caused a local fire far from residential areas and that no one was injured.
Designed to put satellites into orbit, it is a liquid-propellant rocket described by Tianbing as “comparable to Space X’s Falcon 9.”
The aerospace company said the Tianlong-3 can take off with a mass of 590 tonnes, similar to the Falcon 9’s 605 tonnes. Like the Falcon 9, it is also designed for reflight and is expected to be partially reusable for up to 10 trips. .
Tianbing, one of several private Chinese space rocket companies to rise to prominence in recent years, in April 2023 launched another reusable rocket – the Tianlong-2 – fueled by coal-based kerosene.
Equipped with nine engines, the Tianlong-3 is now presented by Tianbing as a revolutionary rocket for the Chinese space industry.
“This is the most powerful power system test of any carrier rocket currently under development in the country, and it is three times more powerful than any previous test of the largest thruster in China’s aerospace industry,” Tianbing wrote.
China opened its space industry to private companies in 2014, sparking a wave of investment in aerospace technology, such as reusable rockets, that SpaceX sees as a key step in strengthening humanity’s presence among the stars.
Chinese people reacting online to Sunday’s accidental launch compared the failure to the initial problems SpaceX encountered when testing and launching its own Falcon rockets.
“Musk’s Falcon 9 also had a lot of explosions in the early stage. If all nine units of Tianlong 3 are ignited in parallel this time, it can be considered a 70% success,” wrote a blogger on Weibo, China’s version of X.
Sunday’s accident came just days after Chinese leader Xi Jinping called on his country’s science sector to work more closely with the state and step up its race against the West’s technological development scene.
“We must strengthen our sense of urgency. We must go further in our innovation efforts. To occupy the heights of scientific and technological competition and future development,” he said on Tuesday.
