Chinese space company accidentally launches rocket in test gone wrong Private Chinese launch outfit Space Pioneer has launched a rocket by mistake. The company yesterday posted news of a static fire test of the Tianlong-3 liquid carrier rocket, a craft it compares to SpaceX’s Falcon 9. The first stage of the vehicle lit up as planned, with nine engines all roaring and pumping out a combined 820 …
Indeed, this armchair rocket scientist concurs with SM , it looks like several engines shut down explosively rather than under ground control. Still, this stuff is perfectly normal in rocket development, the only troubling thing is the location of the test site so near to habitation, it really should be much, much further away.
"the only troubling thing is the location of the test site so near to habitation, it really should be much, much further away."
True, it is rather close and China has a track record of discarded boosters from inland launch sites coming down rather close to inhabited areas since it's too far from the coast to dump it in the ocean. On the other hand, South Padre island isn't all that far from SpaceX Boco Chica "Starbase", although I don't think they test with more fuel than they need for a short static test and are far less likely to accidental launch.
"They're gonna need bigger bolts"
Scott Manley made a good observation in that it might not have been the bolts, but the structure holding the propellant tanks and engines not being up to scratch for this sort of test. It might have been built more like a rocket body than having a nice healthy flange on the bottom with some serious mass/strength.
It's scary how close to a densely populated area that this test site is located for such a large rocket.
someone wasn't wearing their glasses. (See the second paragraph in the 'Investigation' section.)
"Maybe the odd bolt or two was missing from the work bench"
I had a person I worked with instruct an intern to change some hardware I had the intern working on to "make it more robust". The power supply was connected to a mounting bracket with 4 #8 screws so there was little point to fixing the mounting flange to the chassis with 9mm (3/8") bolts which also had the effect of making the power supply impossible to remove without taking the whole damn chassis apart. My original instructions was to drill and tap #10 holes (we had plenty of that on hand) and install the power supply from the top. Anybody familiar with removable base plates inside standard cabinets knows what I was doing.
Surely with a country as large as China they have some space a good distance away from urban areas to do rocket tests!?
Or in a majority Uighur (or other "difficult" ethnicity) region.
I vaguely recall the PRC used to do (does?) its nuclear weapons testing in somewhere named Lol Nor which I should imagine is pretty remote and (now) unpopulated.
I can imagine someone in procurement got some high-tension steel bolts knocked up in the local smithy probably out some discarded horseshoes or cast iron fence railings and pocketed the difference.
Urban centers have a habit of creeping up to non-urban areas. We used to have atomic piles and subsequently rocket testing going on at Santa Susana, a site tucked in the hills that gradually found itself surrounded on three sides by upscale suburbia. (I live about 12 miles from the site as the crow flies and I know from experience that rocket tests are LOUD.) The lab eventually got shut down, more likely due to the relevant bits of aerospace company rationalizing and moving away** than anything else, leaving everyone -- suddenly its 'everyone' -- with a small cleanup problem.
(**The aerospace facility in the San Fernando Valley that had a shuttle engine displayed outside its entrance has been razed and converted into an administrative complex and practice fields for the LA "Rams" football team.)(Says it all, really.)
(PS -- For UK readers -- ever wonder what was going on in Burghfield, south west of Reading?)
Urban centers have a habit of creeping up to non-urban areas
Particularly when there's something in the non-urban area that employs a lot of people. People like to live close to where they work, so wherever the nearest land available for building is found there will be housing constructed there.
"People like to live close to where they work"
They like even better to commute miles and miles to work if they can find a home that's cheap. Those homes have a tendency to be where there aren't many jobs (outside of development companies), along flight paths surrounding good sized airports (or business jet strips), near sewerage treatment plants, etc etc. Those that can do math will spend an extra few bob for a home close to work and not pay the same overall with a higher percentage of travel costs.
" We used to have atomic piles and subsequently rocket testing going on at Santa Susana"
I know that area. They also melted down some stuff doing stupid things and the site is still being reclamated. JPL used to be a "propulsion lab" since up in the canyons was a good place to test things. It's too densely populated around there now to do those sorts of things. People will complain about airport noise when they move to a home right under a known, long established flight path. What? You didn't notice the passenger jets flying over in two minute intervals when you bought/lease the property headed into LAX? <insert Captain Picard face palm>
Or you could be in my situation. This house is on final approach to an airport that has been, for 50+ years limited to Lear jets (or smaller). Two years ago, the county shut it down to repave the runway. What they didn't tell us is that they were repaving it to increase the size of jets that it could handle. There are now several large Embraer and Boeing wide-body jets that land there nightly.
Or, in our case, we could barely hear the passenger jets flying out to sea to turn and land when the wind is opposite to the usually prevailing direction, but now that fuel use and pollutant emissions are important for their bottom line, they come over much lower and slower than they used to. They are probably quieter, being slower and on a long low glide path, but being much lower, sound much louder than they used to.
/me coughs a few times while saying "ripoff!"
They say that "Imitation is the Sincerest Form of Flattery". But in China's case, "Imitation is best the way to do business".
They should stop making cheap knock-offs of things that are (intentionally or otherwise) capable of flying.
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