Hong Kong —
A Chinese rocket scheduled to launch a satellite into orbit exploded on Monday seconds after liftoff, a relatively rare failure for a rocket considered the mainstay of China’s space program.
A Long March 7A rocket produced a huge fireball just 85 seconds after liftoff from Hainan Island’s Wenchang Space Launch Site on Monday night, video showed.
Unlike other successful launches, the incident was downplayed in Chinese state media, with little mention of the explosion.
The state-run Xinhua news agency confirmed the failure three hours after the launch, saying, “The rocket experienced an abnormality during flight.” It added that the cause was under investigation, but no further information was provided.
On Chinese social media, videos of the recital were largely limited to state-related content, with user-submitted videos appearing to be removed or deprioritized from searches on popular platforms Xiaohongshu and Douyin.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping has ambitions to make China a world leader in space science by 2050, and the country is locked in fierce competition with the United States in multiple areas including reusable launch technology, lunar surface research and satellite launches.
SpaceX founder Elon Musk, who has seen many of his company’s rockets explode during tests after launch, said of the X, “Rockets are extremely difficult.”
The Long March 7A is a satellite delivery rocket designed by the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology, a subsidiary of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, the state-run main contractor for China’s space program.
This was to be Long March 7A’s 18th mission. The only previous failure was the first flight in 2020. A second attempt in March 2021 was successful, with images showing crowds gathered to watch the launch.
Wenchang is one of China’s major rocket launch sites and is known for its space tourism. Tourists and residents often gather at the Wenchang Space Launch Observation Center and other locations to observe the launch from a vantage point.
In one video posted online after Monday’s failed launch, the rocket appeared to break apart in midair and gasps could be heard shortly after 8 p.m. According to Chinese state media, the rocket was carrying the Zhongxing 4B, or Chinasat 4B, to provide radio, television and other communications services to users around the world.
The long-awaited launch of Suzaku-3, scheduled for Tuesday morning at Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, has been postponed following the failure of Long March 7A on Monday, Shanghai-based economic news agency Yicai reported, citing sources.
Zhuque-3, developed by China’s private rocket company Landspace, is the country’s first serious attempt to build a reusable launch vehicle. It made its first voyage in December 2025, but the rocket’s first stage caught fire and subsequently crashed near the target recovery site.
Last month, China successfully recovered the first stage of a carrier rocket during an orbital launch test. This is a milestone for the country’s reusable rocket program. In that test, the first stage booster returned to the floating platform about six minutes after the first and upper stages separated, according to state broadcaster CCTV.
“This mission…represents historic progress in China’s reusable rocket technology and a solid foundation for accelerating the improvement of China’s space access capabilities,” rocket maker China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation said in a social media post at the time.
Unlike the Zhuque-3, the Long March 7A is a three-stage rocket and is not designed to be reused.
The rocket, which is about 200 feet (60 meters) long, has four boosters and is capable of sending a 7-ton payload into geostationary orbit (GTO) about 22,000 miles (35,405 kilometers) above the Earth’s surface.
Fix:
This article has been updated to clarify that a different rocket was involved in last month’s orbital launch test.
CNN’s Fred He contributed reporting.
