A Chinese commercial launch provider called Space Pioneer had an accident unlike any I've heard of. A rocket undergoing a static firing on a test stand broke free and launched itself before crashing to the ground near the test facility in Gongyi country, Henan province, on Sunday, June 30 local time. A video from the Telegraph, the UK News service, captures it with English text on screen.
Space Pioneer was conducting its test as a buildup to an orbital launch of the Tianlong-3, which is benchmarked against the SpaceX Falcon 9, in the coming months. The company announced earlier this month that it has secured $207 million in new funding.
Shanghai-based digital newspaper The Paper reported Henan officials as saying there were no casualties reported.
Space Pioneer issued its own statement later saying there was a structural failure at the connection between the rocket body and the test bench. They add that once the flight control software realized the vehicle was airborne, it shut off the engines, but that's not apparent watching the video. It seems to fly with a full flame tail for 15 seconds before the appearance of the flames appear to change, a long time under the circumstances. There looks to be a full 25 seconds before it loses enough velocity to start falling back to Earth.
No casualties? Or no pieces big enough to recognize as once having been people?
It has been a bad few days to be around China's launch facilities. Eight days before, June 22,
this crash of a hypergolic propellant vehicle
apparently unfolded. (That's a YouTube "short" video and they don't import
into this editor well) China 'N Asia Spaceflight has a smaller version on X.
A Long March 2C rocket lifted off from Xichang Satellite Launch Center at 3:00 a.m. Eastern (0700 UTC) June 22, sending the Space Variable Objects Monitor (SVOM) mission satellite into orbit.
The launch was declared successful by the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) a short time after liftoff.
...
A video posted on Chinese social media site Sina Weibo appears to show a rocket booster falling on a populated area with people running for cover.
The booster fell to Earth near Guiding County, Qiandongnan Prefecture in Guizhou province, according to another post. An airspace closure notice for the mission established a temporary danger area containing Guiding County, Guizhou.
SpaceNews goes on to report that comments to the video included some saying it was due to "a failed recovery of SpaceX’s Starship" while others said it was an American conspiracy. Get a clue, commenters, Starship flies on methalox - methane and oxygen. Those don't look like that video.
The Long March 2C uses a toxic, hypergolic (explodes on contact) mix of nitrogen tetroxide and
unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine (UDMH). The reddish-orange gas or smoke from
the booster could be indicative of nitrogen tetroxide, while a yellowish color could be caused by hydrazine fuel mixing with air. The trail of the rocket in
that short video looks far more like nitrogen tetroxide than the Starship's fuel.
It looks like Jinx from SpaceCamp found alternate employment after causing a shuttle full of kids to launch.
ReplyDelete"State media reports no..." Yeah, state media. The same state media that covers for just about every negative thing that happens in the magic Han kingdom.
ReplyDeleteAnd, really, how private are the private companies in West Taiwan?
So many questions, so little give-a-darned...
Q: People watching KSC be like, why do they make us stay way back here?
ReplyDeleteA: Range safety went to the lowest bidder, like always; they give the destruct button to a mall cop with a bunch of children to support, and fire him if he presses it.
When I moved to Melbourne you'd still meet the occasional old timer who would refer to "Snark infested waters" (an early Air Force missile) or the time a misplaced semicolon in the flight software dropped an Atlas Agena carrying its payload to Venus right offshore here.
DeleteAll reasons why the make everyone stay so far back.
Then there's the fact that China launches from facilities deep inland and drops boosters on the mainland rather doing pretty much everything out over the ocean like we do.
"All reasons why they make..."
DeleteA long time ago I did the KSC tour that included the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo launch control centers. The Mercury Atlas building was up close with an armor glass direct view wall. Gemini was a bit further away. Apollo was a LOT further and was under a concrete dome with the blast door entrance opposite the rocket. The only direct view was via periscope. The docent said NASA ran the numbers on what would happen if the Saturn V exploded on the pad....
DeleteOn another blog, it was said that it was those cheap Chinese bolts that failed.
ReplyDeleteIf nothing else, it's a believable guess. Do they cite any sources by name or anything like that?
DeleteDid China hire Baghdad Bob as their spokesman?
ReplyDelete