Chinese analogue of Falcon 9 crashed during testing

 The first stage of the rocket departed from the launch platform due to a structural failure and fell into the mountains in central China. Tianlong-3 runs on kerosene and liquid oxygen. They plan to make it a reusable rocket, like the Falcon 9.

The Chinese company Tianbing Technology (part of Space Pioneer) carried out the first launch of the Tianlong-3 launch vehicle, but it ended in failure, Reuters reports.

The first stage of the rocket separated from the launch pad due to a structural failure, lifted off and crashed in a hilly area in the city of Gunyi in central China. There were no reports of casualties after an initial investigation, the company said.

Tianlong-3 is a two-stage rocket with a length of 71 m and a diameter of 3.8 m, powered by kerosene and liquid oxygen. The first stage is powered by nine Tianhuo-12 engines. A total of 41 such engines were produced, the first nine passed final tests in March.

In the future, Tianlong-3 is planned to be reusable and conduct up to 20 launches per year. In terms of payload capacity, the rocket is approaching the Falcon 9 developed by the American SpaceX : it is assumed that it will be able to launch 17 tons of payload into low Earth orbit (Falcon 9 launches 22.8 tons) and 14 tons into sun-synchronous orbit.

It is the largest commercial launch vehicle developed in China to date. It is expected to increase Beijing's launch capabilities, including batches of satellites.

A week ago, on June 23, one of the stages of the Long March 2C rocket launched from the Xichang Cosmodrome fell near a village in Guizhou Province in southwest China.