On Sunday, an accidental test launch of a space rocket in Henan, east-central China, caused a large explosion in a hilly area near Gongyi, a city of about 800,000 people. The test was run by a private Chinese space company that has its own launch base in the area; local authorities have so far reported no deaths or injuries from the incident. This is not the first time that explosions have occurred near urban areas following space launches in China.
On Sunday the company Space Pioneer (Beijing Tianbing Technology) was carrying out a test of the engines of the first stage of the Tianlong-3, a new rocket designed to be reusable like the systems that the US space company SpaceX has been using for years. As always happens in these cases, the test involved turning on the rocket’s engines and measuring their performance, while keeping the launch system anchored to the ground. However, due to a structural failure, the anchoring systems did not work and Tianlong-3 left the ground and began an uncontrolled ascent of a few hundred meters.
After running out of fuel, the rocket shut down its engines and fell to the ground, with no way for Space Pioneer to control it. Tianlong-3 fell into a hilly area not far from the launch site, exploding and starting a fire in a forest area. It is unclear whether the rocket had an in-flight destruction system for safety reasons. The Gongyi Emergency Management Office said the fire was put out after a few hours and no deaths or injuries were reported.
Space Pioneer has been working for several years on the construction of a reusable launch system that would make it less expensive to transport satellites and other material into orbit, because part of the rockets could be reused and would not be destroyed at each launch as happens today. The company is one of many that began its research and development activities a decade ago, when private investment in space companies was made possible in China. The Chinese government, however, maintains strong control of the space sector and, as in other private sectors, is among the main financiers of commercial initiatives.
Space companies typically have their launch sites along coastal areas to reduce the risk of explosions and botched launches. But it’s not uncommon for China to have launch sites in populated areas, as is the case in Gongyi. On June 22, a video appeared to show a Chinese rocket carrying a satellite in orbit in southwestern Sichuan province making an uncontrolled reentry into a populated area.
