BEIJING, June 30 (Reuters) – Beijing Tianbing Technology Co said on Sunday the first stage of its under-development rocket Tianlong-3 had detached from its launch pad during a test due to structural failure and landed on a hilly area of the city of Gongyi in central China.
Preliminary investigations showed there were no casualties, Beijing Tianbing, also known as Space Pioneer, said in a statement on its official WeChat account.
Parts of the rocket stage spread in a “safe area” but caused a local fire, according to a different statement by the Gongyi emergency management bureau.
The fire has since been extinguished and no person has been hurt, the bureau said.
The two-stage Tianlong-3 — literally “Sky Dragon 3” — is a partly reusable rocket under development by Space Pioneer, one of a small group of private-sector rocket makers operating in the country that have grown rapidly over the past five years.
Falling rocket Debris is not uncommon in China after launches; however, it is very rare for part of a rocket under development to make an unplanned flight out of its test site and crash.
According to Space Pioneerz, the first stage of the Tianlong-3 ignited normally during a hot test but later detached from the test bench due to structural failure and landed in hilly areas 1.5 km away.
A rocket may have several stages, where the first, or lowest, stage ignite and propel the rocket upwards upon its launch.
The first stage falls off after it has spent the fuel, and a second kicks in to keep the rocket in propulsion. Some rockets have third stages.
The performance, according to Space Pioneer, is comparable to SpaceX’s Falcon 9, which also features two stages.
Guangzhou-based private space Launcher company Space Pioneer launched a kerosene-oxygen rocket, the Tianlong-2, and became the first private Chinese company to send a liquid-propellant rocket into space in April 2023.
The Chinese commercial space companies mushroomed into the sector since 2014, when the state allowed private investment in this industry. Many were slotted to start making satellites, while others like Space Pioneer focused on reusable rockets that would significantly lower the mission cost. In fact, test sites like these companies are scattered along the coastal areas of China beside the sea for safety reasons.
Some are sited deep in the country’s interior, though: Space Pioneer’s test center is located in Gongyi, a city of 800,000 people in the central province of Henan.