China's Space Program Thread II

[Overbom]

That's what I call a proper FUBAR

Major heads are on the chopping list. From the company executives/management/engineers to the regulators/CNSA, to whoever even approved (local gov?) this stand test facility so close to an urban area

First time I saw it in the news, I thought it was some kind of fake news or your usual Western propaganda. I had to double and triple check just because this whole news seemed so incredibly stupid to be real

That it flew without exploding, that's the only kind of good news I can get out from all of this

 

[siegecrossbow]

Test platform appears substandard.

 

[RedMetalSeadramon]

They need to have all these done over either oceans or deserts. Have these rockets tested in Gansu, Xinjiang, Hainan etc not over Sichuan and Henan

 

[Maikeru]

At least it was not hypergolic.

 

[escobar]

China's Satellite Internet Race Breaks Wide Open

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[Rank Amateur]

Imagine that "static test" rocket flew in the general direction of the cameraman instead of the other way around, and then crashed right in that populated area. The casualties would be catastrophic.

How could such low-level errors be allowed to even happen in the first place? Some heads in that company (and even some in CNSA who gave this test the go-ahead) will have to roll.

Residents were evacuated during the test. Please read the news.

I'm just a layperson, but it seems to me that if a *static* rocket test requires the evacuation of residents, the test site is too close.

 

[Kejora]

I heard static test is supposed to be done at half thrust but the press release says the rocket produce 820 ton of thrust which is bigger than the thrust listed in Wikipedia (770 ton). Could this be a case of someone forgot to set the engines to half thrust and the clamp weren't designed to withstand that much thrust?

 

[Quickie]

Test platform appears substandard.

Apparently, for how basic the test stand looks, according to the explanations given, it did hold up with the failure coming from the structural connection between the rocket and the test stand.

Why weren't the engines immediately cut off when the rocket began to break off from its clamp and began to lift off from the test stand? It seems like they suddenly lost the controlling link with the engines and depended entirely on the rocket onboard computer to cut them off.
Or did they purposely let the rocket fly off a short distance away just so they could save the test stand and the facilities around it?

 

[Dante80]

Apparently, for how basic the test stand looks, according to the explanations given, it did hold up with the failure coming from the structural connection between the rocket and the test stand.

Why weren't the engines immediately cut off when the rocket began to break off from its clamp and began to lift off from the test stand? It seems like they suddenly lost the controlling link with the engines and depended entirely on the rocket onboard computer to cut them.
Or did they purposely let the rocket fly off a short distance away just so they could save the test stand and the facilities around it?

Generally, there is no manual engine cut-off in a test like this. The on-board computer handles everything.
This is how it is supposed to be btw, modern LVs only have manually controlled FTS systems (and some LVs have only automatic FTS too). The job of the modern control center is to monitor, not to command.

Granted, the above is a hypothesis somewhat, since range safety measures in the China are a little opaque (especially when private company testing is concerned).

 

[SlothmanAllen]

Luckily it didn’t impact a populated area. As others have mentioned, a pause to review safety standards will needed at minimum.