Beijing Tianbing Technology Co said on Sunday that the first stage of its under-development Tianlong-3 rocket separated from its launch pad during a test due to a structural failure and fell into a mountainous area in central China’s Gongyi city.
Beijing Tianbing, also known as Space Pioneer, said in a statement on its official WeChat account that there were no reports of casualties after preliminary investigation.
According to a separate statement issued by the Gongyi Emergency Management Bureau, parts of the rocket stage disintegrated in a “safe area” but caused a localized fire.
The bureau said the fire was extinguished and no one was injured.
The two-stage Tianlong-3 (“Sky Dragon 3”) is a partially reusable rocket under development by Space Pioneer, one of a small group of private-sector rocket manufacturers that have grown rapidly over the past five years.
It is not new for rocket debris to fall in China after launch, but it is extremely rare for a part of a rocket under development to take off unplanned from its test site and crash.
According to Space Pioneer, the Tianlong-3’s first stage ignited normally during the hot test, but later separated from the test bench due to a structural failure and fell 1.5 kilometers (0.9 miles) away into a mountainous region.
According to Space Pioneer, the Tianlong-3’s performance is comparable to SpaceX’s Falcon 9.
In April 2023, Space Pioneer launches a kerosene-oxygen rocket, the Tianlong-2, becoming the first private Chinese firm to send a liquid-propellant rocket into space.
Chinese commercial space companies have moved rapidly into the sector since the state allowed private investment in the industry in 2014.
Several companies began building satellites, while others, including Space Pioneer, focused on developing reusable rockets, which could greatly reduce mission costs.
Testing sites of such companies can be found in coastal areas of China, located close to the sea for safety reasons.
But some test centers are also located in the country’s interior, such as the Space Pioneer test center located in Gongyi, a city of 800,000 in the central province of Henan.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)