A Chinese Long March 7A rocket exploded roughly 85 seconds after lifting off Monday evening, destroying the communications satellite it was carrying in a rare failure for one of the country's newer launch vehicles.
The unmanned rocket left the Wenchang Space Launch Site on Hainan island at about 8 p.m. local time, according to the South China Morning Post. Video circulated widely on social media showing a fireball spreading across the night sky while the vehicle was still climbing through the atmosphere.
The payload was the ChinaSat-4B satellite, also known as Zhongxing-4B, which was bound for high Earth orbit. Space.com reported that the Zhongxing series provides telecommunications and broadband services and is believed to support military users as well.
The 60-meter rocket, designed by the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology, was on its 18th mission. CNN reported that its only previous failure came on its maiden flight in 2020. Bloomberg described the loss as the second failure this year within the Long March family.
The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation had not issued a statement by Tuesday morning, and state media coverage of the incident was notably restrained.
The failure also had knock-on effects. The launch of the Zhuque-3, China's first serious attempt at a reusable rocket, developed by the private firm LandSpace, was pushed back from Tuesday morning, according to the Shanghai outlet Yicai.