Space Pioneer had been prepping the vehicle for its debut launch later this summer.
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Chinese space firm unintentionally launches its new rocket
- Thread starter JournalBot
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The video of it is absolutely crazy...an accidental launch......
www.theguardian.com
Chinese space rocket crashes in flames after accidental launch
Company Space Pioneer says first stage of its Tianlong-3 launched during test after ‘structural failure’ and crashed in hills near city of Gongyi
www.theguardian.com
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...at least it wasn't running on hydrazine. "Accidental explosive release" would be far more problematic than with kerosene.
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Some of these videos show the rocket rising behind what appear to be apartment towers. While I'm sure the perspective makes those buildings appear closer to the launch then they really are, they are still far too close for this kind of work. Combined with videos of Long March rockets falling on villages (spewing toxic propellant), just how long will it be before there is a major launch accident in China?
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I thought there's been plenty, but reports/witnesses/evidence on them end up quickly cleaned up. If you google "Chinese rocket stage falls on Chinese village", there's plenty of hits over the last decade. Many with no injuries, fancy that. What luck.
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I believe the test stand facility is around 2-3km away from the urban area.
A couple of videos of it with commentary and I think they are right, you can hear a lot of glass shattering when the thing goes KABOOM upon crashing. Hopefully no one on the ground was injured or killed. I just hope any personnel on site had actual bunkers to shelter in.
Also to add, Soctt Manley speculated that likely it was a failure of the structural body and not the hold downs themselves that went, launching the rocket. That seems like a really, really, really bad oversight and chasing minimum weight to try to get to the payload capability they need. Which doesn't seem very compatible with reuse if the structure is that thin.
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Rookie mistake. When using the garrys mod welding tool you want to set strength to 0, not an arbitrarily high number, so it doesn’t ever break.
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Yeah, I'd be willing to bet they cheaped out on the launch stand. "eh, that doesn't need to be aerospace grade, we can just use whatever".
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Mungus the Unhyphenated
Ars Tribunus Militum
Note to self: Don't try saving money by purchasing rocket test stand parts off of Temu...
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There already was, in 1996. Long March 3B launched sideways and exploded in a nearby village, allegedly killing at least a hundred people if not more, according to US personnel on site (it was supposed to be a commercial launch of an US satellite). The disaster and its scrutiny led to the subsequent US ITAR restrictions.
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They need a drop of the good ol’ Boeing magic to keep things grounded.I guess they forgot to set the parking brake.
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Scott Manley has a great video about it. the only thing cooler than that would have been if it had ripped the test stand from the ground and we saw the rocket flying with it still attached. more please!!!
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Speakertoanimals
Ars Tribunus Militum
When you are working with a fixed price contract, you have to stay within the budget.
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I wonder if they got a lot of extra data thanks to this, maybe it speeds up development
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Was it just me, or did their hardware configuration and flight profile both look somewhat off norminal?
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According to the report in The Register, the shutdown was triggered by a safety mechanism.
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As someone quipped on X, this is what happens when you steal only 95% of someone else's IP. XD
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Speakertoanimals
Ars Tribunus Militum
This event had more extra added additional redundant termination all through it.
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There was a "nice" first hand account of it from Bruce Campbell, one of the US techs witnessing it:
Disaster at Xichang
An eyewitness speaks publicly for the first time about history’s worst launch accident
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Unscheduled Test Flight instead of a RUD. ... errr... I guess UTF ended in a RUD after the CWG.
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ah yes, the age old safety mechanism of fuel leaking and exploding. works every time.
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Statistical
Ars Legatus Legionis
Yeah the US constellation of early warning launch detection sats would have seen the IR plume. Not saying we were moments from WWIII but I am sure there was a "what the fuck is that?" in the space force control room for the SBIRS constellation..
All nuclear powers share things like rocket launch schedules to avoid any misunderstanding but not sure we even share what are suppose to be rocket not-launches.
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