Video Shows Rocket of China's SpaceX Rival Exploding in Mountains

A Long March 5B rocket lifts off from the Wenchang launch site on China's southern Hainan island on May 5, 2020. On June 30, a Tianlong-3 rocket belonging to Chinese SpaceX rival Space Pioneer accidentally escaped its moorings and launched before crashing back down to the ground soon afterward.

Footage has surfaced of a Chinese rocket accidentally blasting off on Sunday, during what was meant to be a ground test, before falling back to earth and exploding in a fireball.

"Due to the structural failure of the connection between the rocket body and the test platform, the first-stage rocket was separated from the launch pad," Space Pioneer, a private aerospace company and a rival of the U.S.'s SpaceX, wrote in a social media statement. No casualties were reported, according to state media.

Space Pioneer, also known as Beijing Tianbing Technology Co., said the test began at 3:43 p.m. in Gongyi, Henan Province in north-central China, with the first-stage rocket igniting normally and achieving 820 tons of engine thrust.

Because of the "structural failure," however, the rocket escaped its moorings and lifted off. The onboard computer then shut the engines, causing the rocket to fall into a mountainous area about a mile to the southwest where it "disintegrated on impact," according to Space Pioneer.

Videos shared on Chinese microblogging platform Weibo show the Tianlong-3 (Sky Dragon-3), a two-stage kerosene-liquid rocket similar to SpaceX's Falcon 9 medium-lift launch vehicle, making its unplanned liftoff, reaching an apogee, slowing, and falling while nearly parallel with the earth.

"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. (The) firm was targeting an orbital launch in the coming months," Andrew Jones, a SpaceNews reporter, wrote on X (formerly Twitter).

Static fire tests are meant to check the performance of a fully assembled rocket and identify any issues before a flight test can be conducted as a final step.

The Chinese foreign ministry didn't immediately respond to a written request for comment.

The clips emerged just days after other videos surfaced on Weibo showing a Chinese rocket booster falling into a Chinese village.

Launched on Saturday by China's space agency at Xichang Satellite Launch Center, the booster had been attached to a Long March 2C rocket carrying into orbit a satellite with observational equipment developed by French and Chinese researchers.

Footage of what happened shows the multi-ton booster impacting on a hillside near what appears to be a residential area and a major thoroughfare, but no casualties have been reported.

One video shows flames burning inside of one structure and debris that is scattered across the ground, partially obstructing a road.

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