This should be a triumphant moment for China’s space industry. The 180ft Long March 3B rocket stands on the launch pad, ready to carry an American-made satellite into orbit on its debut mission.
But just a few seconds after the explosion it was clear that something was very wrong. In the grainy video footage, the rocket is seen veering hard to the left, barely clearing the tower and torpedoing off into the night at a right angle.
It landed in the nearby village of Mayelin, near China’s Xichang Launch Center, creating a huge fireball that destroyed buildings and littered the landscape in rocket fuel. Footage smuggled by Israeli engineers shows an apocalyptic landscape. In China’s official account of the incident, six people were killed – although US defense officials estimate the true number to be in the hundreds.
The 1996 disaster led to a rapid withdrawal by US space companies from working with China – effectively bringing in the strict export control regime that exists to this day.
Despite these setbacks, China has emerged in the last decade as a space superpower – launching a rival to the International Space Station, landing a probe on the dark side of the Moon and a constellation of satellites to rival GPS.
In the midst of this explosive growth, China’s space industry has been overlooked with a history of near misses and environmental damage.
Just last week, the private rocket company, Space Pioneer, which is considered a domestic rival to Elon Musk’s SpaceX, conducted a test of the “static fire” engine of the new launch Tianlong-3 – which translates as “heavenly dragon”.
As the name of the test suggests, the rocket is supposed to remain locked on the launch pad while scientists analyze the thrusters. However, the vehicle broke its tether, blasted into the sky before its engines died and fell back to Earth, crashing into a mountain near the town of Gongyi.
The company blamed “structural failure” for the crash. State media reported no casualties.
Since then, numerous videos have appeared on social media of burning rocket parts – debris from China’s aggressive launch program – plunging to earth close to civilian infrastructure, despite the country’s censorship.
“Botched launches are nothing new,” said Chris Quilty, founder of space research firm Quilty Analytics. A quick search on YouTube shows many videos of locals standing around charred rocket parts in fields or near villages.
He added: “What’s terrible is the use of dangerous solid propellants – and it’s launched from the land rather than from the coastline, like every non-Communist country, so the debris falls into the ocean instead of your population.”
Some of China’s major launch bases, such as Xichang, are located inland – although more modern bases, such as Wenchang, have been built on distant coasts.
Historically, Chinese rockets have relied on dangerous fuels such as nitrogen tetroxide, liquid hydrazine and “red nitric acid”. These compounds form highly effective propellants – which are also toxic and carcinogenic. The fuel burns with a characteristic dirty red brown color.
In part, China’s rocket fuel goes back to technology used in intercontinental ballistic missiles during the Cold War. The fuel itself is relatively stable and reliable. It can be stored easily and does not need to be “chilled” before launching.
“Storability is a major advantage,” says Jack-James Marlow, head of engineering at Scottish rocket business Skyrora, as it leads to simpler launch vehicles and ground infrastructure.
But the byproducts can kill. Rob Adlard, of British rocket company Gravitilab, said: “Nitric acid with red smoke is really bad. We looked at the pictures (from China) and thought, ‘Oh my God, I can’t believe they did this.’
“Recently there were pictures going around of a booster that had fallen near a village and local residents were taking pictures. The truth is, if you’re anywhere near nitric acid in the West, you’re in a dangerous situation.
In Ignition! – the colorful history of rocket fuel recommended by SpaceX’s Elon Musk – John D Clark writes that the red fuming nitric acid “attacks the skin and flesh with the spirit of the piranha school”.
US rocket scientists who experimented with this dangerous chemical in the 1940s were nicknamed the “suicide squad”. He is among the young scientists who will lead China’s space program, the country’s “rocket king” Qian Xuesen.
Most Western rocket companies are beginning to lean toward less toxic kerosene and liquid oxygen, and some are developing more environmentally friendly sources. SpaceX has turned to methane, which produces fewer emissions compared to other fuels, for its latest Raptor engines.
But it’s not just on the launch pad that China’s space ambitions live dangerously. In 2007, the country’s military launched a missile that destroyed a weather satellite orbiting 500 miles above the earth. Anti-satellite missile tests created the largest space debris field on the planet, posing a danger to future launches and missions. A US Space Force general warned in December that its satellites are still being forced to dodge the remains of the probe 16 years later.
Still China’s space industry has hardly been held by the attitude to safety. The country will host 222 launches in 2023, just behind the US. Despite the failure of the Tianlong-3 test, the country has also moved quickly to adopt a reusable launch system – similar to SpaceX.
The renewed space program has worried US officials. A report from the US-China Economic Security Review Commission warned China could try to put nuclear weapons in space, with “the potential to threaten the US homeland with new global strike capabilities”. Officially, China accuses the US of being a “space militarizing power”.
While China’s rocket program has developed more sophisticated, it is unlikely to stop the current approach to safety and the environment – although its most advanced rockets, such as Long March 5, have been swapped for less powerful fuel.
“China is looking to enter the competitive commercial space sector and it is coming quickly,” said Skyrora’s Marlow. “You can cut corners and speed up the process.”
Adlard, of Gravitilab, which is developing a hybrid rocket system that claims to produce 75pc less greenhouse gases, said watching China’s rocket program was like looking into a “parallel universe”.
“He did something that was unacceptable,” he said.
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