Unsuccessful launch of Long March 4C

Media reports of the unsuccessful launch of the Chinese missile Long March 4C ( Great Campaign-4C ). Official news agencies have not yet confirmed the disaster information. The rocket was launched on Wednesday from the Taiyuan cosmodrome at 2:55 local time and was supposed to launch the Gaofen-10 satellite into heliosynchronous orbit.

China conducts launches in secret, especially in the case of launches in the interests of the military from the Taiyuan cosmodrome, and it becomes known about the upcoming launch after navigational warnings in the fall zones of the spent steps. The launch is announced in the official media after the mission is successfully completed - about 40 minutes after the start, but this time it did not happen, and the official media is silent.US Space Surveillance did not detect new objects in Earth orbit, which confirms the first unsuccessful launch of Long March 4C in 2016.



On Thursday morning, reports began to arrive that villagers had found rocket wreckage. Debris of the first stage was discovered (first photo) in the expected area of ​​the fall 600 km from the start. Further at 1050 km from the cosmodrome, in the center of the second fall zone of the steps, the remains of the head fairing were found, which confirms that the flight was normal until the late stages of the second stage. The problem arose either with the second stage or with the third. The failure of the third stage is a very rare defect for Long March 4C and in this case, an unsuccessful launch will not affect subsequent launches.

In mid-September, the launch of the new Tiangong-2 orbital station is planned.using the Long March 2F missile , and then launching to it the Shenzhou-11 with a crew of two in October.