A Chinese rocket company with the somewhat ironic name of Space Pioneer had a bit of a mishap over the weekend. They were doing a static fire test of there Tianlong-3 rocket when something went very wrong.
A static fire test means the rocket is bolted down to a launch stand so that it can’t liftoff. But the Tianlong-3 somehow broke loose and launched itself into the air. Then its engines shut off an the rocket fell back to earth and exploded.
Wow. This is apparently what was supposed to be a STATIC FIRE TEST today of a Tianlong-3 first stage by China’s Space Pioneer. That’s catastrophic, not static. Firm was targeting an orbital launch in the coming months. https://t.co/BY9MgJeE7A pic.twitter.com/L6ronwLW1N
— Andrew Jones (@AJ_FI) June 30, 2024
That is one very large crater.
The impact site from the Tianlong-3 (dynamic) static-fire test/ad hoc first stage test launch…
