China's powerful rocket crashes into hills after 'accidental launch'

A powerful Chinese rocket crashed after an accidental launchrdquo during a ground test on Sunday due to a structural failure a private company responsible for the rocket saidSpace Pioneer also known as Beijing Tianbing Technology said in a statement that the Tianlong3 rocket was unexpectedly launched during a staticfire test at a facility in Gongyi county in Henan provinceLuckily it landed in a hilly area of the city of Gongyi and the company said there were no injuries as people in the area were evacuated in advance of the rocket testThe nine engines of the rocket stated to be the most powerful in the country fired in the afternoon on Sunday were lifted off because of a ldquostructural failure at the connection between the rocket body and the test platformrdquo the company saidSpace Pioneer is one of several private aerospace companies that are developing mediumlift reusable rockets to help China assemble its satellite constellations comparable to SpaceXrsquos StarlinkResidents in flats in the countylevel city of Gongyi posted footage online showing the rocket climbing into the sky leaving a trail of thick smoke before falling back to the ground on its side the Hong Kongbased South China Morning Post reported SundayThe crash of the keroseneliquid oxygenpropelled rocket caused a huge explosionSome space observers criticised Space Pioneer for ldquomaking a lowlevel mistakerdquo and posing an imminent danger to residentsIt was apparently not far from the denselypopulated area of Gongyi and the rocket was out of controlrdquo one user of Chinese social media Weibo wroteHowever the company did not even call it an accident in their statement Instead they were busy talking about the rocket parameters the user said according to the PostDue to the structural failure of the connection between the rocket body and the test platform the firststage rocket was separated from the launch padrdquo Space Pioneer was quoted in the Hong Kong mediaAfter liftoff the onboard computer was automatically shut down and the rocket fell into the deep mountains 15 kms southwest of the test platform The rocket body fell into the mountain and disintegratedrdquo the company saidThe rockets product performance is comparable to SpaceXrsquos Falcon 9 Space Pioneer said adding that it will be capable of launching the rocket over 30 times per year after the rocketrsquos first successful flightThe incident happened days after Chinarsquos Changrsquoe6 lunar probe brought firstever samples from the far side of the moonSpace Pioneer said the test site was far away from the cityBefore the test we worked with the local government to improve safety measures and organised the evacuation of people in surrounding areas in advance After investigations there were no casualtiesrdquo it saidThe company said the rocket generated a combined thrust of 820 tonnes during the test ndash surpassing the 400 or so tonnes of combined thrust of other Chinese reusable rockets PTI KJV ZH AKJ ZH ZH ZHThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever