Chinese Private Rocket Crashes and Explodes During Test Flight Near Gongyi

A Chinese private company’s space rocket crashed and erupted into flames near the city of Gongyi on Sunday, following an accidental launch during a test. The first stage of the Tianlong-3 rocket, developed by Beijing Tianbing, also known as Space Pioneer, left its launch pad due to a structural failure at the connection between the rocket and the test stand, the company stated on its official WeChat account.

The rocket landed in a hilly area near Gongyi, a city in central China. Video footage published by Chinese digital media outlet The Paper showed the rocket soaring straight up into the air before losing power, turning horizontally, and falling back to earth, where it exploded into flames on nearby forested hills.

An initial investigation found no reports of casualties. Parts of the rocket stage were scattered within a designated “safe area” but caused a local fire, according to a separate statement from the Gongyi emergency management bureau. The fire has since been extinguished, and no injuries were reported.

The two-stage Tianlong-3, or “Sky Dragon 3,” is a partly reusable rocket under development by Space Pioneer. The company is part of a small group of private-sector rocket makers that have rapidly grown over the past five years. While falling rocket debris in China after launches is not uncommon, it is rare for part of a rocket under development to make an unplanned flight out of its test site and crash.

According to Space Pioneer, the first stage of the Tianlong-3 ignited normally during a hot test but later detached from the test bench due to structural failure. A rocket typically consists of several stages, with the first stage igniting and propelling the rocket upwards upon launch. Once its fuel is exhausted, the first stage falls off, and the second stage ignites to keep the rocket in propulsion.

Space Pioneer claims that the performance of Tianlong-3 is comparable to SpaceX’s Falcon 9, another two-stage rocket. In April 2023, Space Pioneer launched 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 surged into the sector since 2014, when private investment in the industry was permitted by the state. Many of these companies started by making satellites, while others, including Space Pioneer, focused on developing reusable rockets to significantly cut mission costs.

The test sites of such companies are typically found along China’s coastal areas for safety reasons. However, some are located deep in the country’s interior, such as Space Pioneer’s test center in Gongyi, a city of 800,000 people in the central province of Henan.