China suffers unprecedented double rocket launch failures in a single day
Saturday’s twin failures involved a state-owned rocket and a private one, but observers attribute them to industry’s growing pains
In a historic blow to its space programme, China suffered two rocket launch failures in a single day for the first time over the weekend.
While Saturday’s failed launches gained immediate attention on social media, with some describing the day as “Black Saturday”, space observers said the setbacks were part of the growing pains the country’s rapidly developing aerospace industry would inevitably experience.
They also drew parallels with similar problems Elon Musk’s firm SpaceX had experienced, as well as its principles of learning from its failures and continuing with a rapid launch schedule.
The first failure involved a state-owned Long March-3B rocket, which blasted off from the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre in Sichuan province at 12.55am local time on Saturday.
The third stage of the rocket malfunctioned, according to the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), resulting in the loss of a Shijian-32 satellite and ending a success streak that had lasted since the Long March-3B’s last failure in April 2020.
Later the same day, private company Galactic Energy’s Ceres-2 rocket crashed back to Earth on its maiden flight, resulting in the loss of the commercial satellites it was carrying.