The rocket was undergoing a static fire test of the stage, in which a vehicle is clamped to a test stand while its engines are ignited, when the booster broke free. According to a statement from the company, the rocket was not sufficiently clamped down and blasted off from the test stand “due to a structural failure.”
Video of the accidental ascent showed the rocket rising several hundred meters into the sky before it crashed explosively into a mountain 1.5 km away from the test site.
To paraphrase Scott Manley; they got the rocket science down but need to work on their bolt science
(Fly safe)
Uh, I guess that’s why many of the more reasonable static test rigs have the rocket flat on the ground with a hill on the pointy side just in case.
That’s a different type of test for a different type of rocket.
That’s for testing engines alone. Static fire is separate yes way further down the line when you have the rocket built and ready to fly
Plus some bay or gulf, relatively quiet, very close by the site helps. It’s too bad the Chinese don’t have any of those.
Yeah, it was crazy how close a city was - one of the things Scot Manley went over
well at least they know the rocket works now
Until that mountain got in its way anyways
Video of the accidental ascent
I thought for sure it was going to be this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2VDLYWi5ck&t=50s
Is anyone speaking Chinese able to tell me what the guy in the first scene of the video is crying out? The one where the rocket falls horizontally. I mean, I have a general idea what is being said there conceptually, but I’d love to get an actual, accurate translation.
Basically it’s two people saying “Is it falling? Wouldn’t it explode? I’m recording it. Fuck the rocket is falling!”
From 5-8 seconds, the person seems to be saying争着争着中火大了, which doesn’t mean anything to me, but it may be something of the local dialect.
Hey, much appreciated!
This is the best summary I could come up with:
According to a statement from the company, the rocket was not sufficiently clamped down and blasted off from the test stand “due to a structural failure.”
Video of the accidental ascent showed the rocket rising several hundred meters into the sky before it crashed explosively into a mountain 1.5 km away from the test site.
The statement from Space Pioneer sought to downplay the incident, saying it had implemented safety measures before the test, and there were no casualties as a result of the accident.
Located in the Henan province in eastern China, alongside the Yellow River, Gongyi has a population of about 800,000 people.
Typically, during a static fire test, the mass of propellant on board a vehicle combined with strong clamps hold a rocket down.
This was a notable achievement, but the rocket’s engines were provided by a Chinese state-operated firm, the Academy of Aerospace Liquid Propulsion Technology, rather than the private company.
The original article contains 572 words, the summary contains 155 words. Saved 73%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
I hear Boeing ordered 6 of these rockets all ready
Getting all my aerospace technology on Temu.
I saw this movie. Did it involve bringing kids to outer space and an AI robot that just wanted to help?
Damn that rocket told everyone “fuck you” when it launched and then said “no seriously…fuck you” and then decided to meet its fiery demise.
That’s what happens when you build hardware out of cheese and spit like China is known for. One day it’s going to bite you in the ass.
Maoist rocket says, “Fuck your imperialist and capitalist clamps” and commits revolutionary suicide.
Anyone else curious about the off-camera person who sounds like a cowering goblin?
Real life Kerbal Space Program accident.
Someone messed up their staging… again.
Lives were lost, equipment destroyed, lessons has been learned-ish.
Except the test facility was dangerously close to city resulting at minimum in an enormous amount of broken windows (clearly heard in the recorded videos) and no doubt damage to people associated with large volumes of windows breaking.
Sounds pretty Kerbal to me.
But at least they already figured out how to land on the Mun and come back. They just need to go back to a previous save.
By any chance, were the clamps filled with styrofoam or something? 😁 (Tofu-dreg joke)
