Countdown to failure

Xinhua News Agency/REX/Shutterstock

By Timothy Revell

Chinas latest space launch has ended in failure. The Long March 5 rocketsuccessfully took off at 11.23am GMT on Sunday from the Wenchang Space Launch Centre in China, but after an hour came tumbling back down to Earth due to an abnormality.

Once in the air, mission control in Beijing tried to save the rocket by changing its flight plans, but those attempts were unsuccessful. The rocket, along with the experimental communications satellite it was carrying, crashed into the Pacific Ocean shortly afterwards.

The cause of the failure is still being investigated, but is likely to cause delays for future launch plans. This is the second Long March failure in two weeks, with a television satellite failing to hitch a ride into space on June 19. At the moment, its not clear if there is a connection between the two incidents.

China had planned to launch a rover into space by the end of this year, destined for the dark side of the moon, with the hope of bringing rock and soil samples back to Earth. But the mission relies on hitching a ride aboard a Long March 5 rocket, so may be delayed if the causes of the latest failures take a while to find and rectify.

Delays are possible. The rocket cannot fly until we find out the problem and solve it, and that will take time, said Wang Jianyu, the commander in chief of Chinas quantum satellite project who is also involved in the moon missions.

China also has plans to complete the construction of a space station, as well as landing humans and building a settlement on the moon. These missions will rely on Long March 5 rockets, so finding the points of failure is crucial to avoid lengthy delays.

Read more: China has had a telescope on the moon for the past two years

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Rocket failure may delay China's space station and moon missions - New Scientist