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Not-so-static fire: Private Chinese rocket accidentally launches during test

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WKTaylor

WKTaylor

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Sep 24, 2001
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This is one of those 'aw-shit' moments... that we all dread...


Scott Manley's analysis...
Space Pioneer's new Tianlong-3 rocket was supposed to stay on the ground during the June 30 test.

Space Pioneer's Tianlong-2 rocket. The Chinese company's Tianlong-3 rocket launched unexpectedly during a static fire test on June 30, 2024. (Image credit: Space Pioneer)
A private Chinese rocket took an unscheduled flight over the weekend.

The Beijing-based company Space Pioneer conducted a "static fire" test with the first stage of its new Tianlong-3 rocket on Sunday (June 30) in Gongyi, a city of about 800,000 people in the central Chinese province of Henan.

Space Pioneer briefly ignited the stage's engines while the vehicle remained anchored to the launch pad. That's how it was supposed to work, anyway. But the anchoring mechanism failed on Sunday, and the rocket lifted off on a dramatic and frightening surprise mission.
... ...

Regards, Wil Taylor
o Trust - But Verify!
o For those who believe, no proof is required; for those who cannot believe, no proof is possible. [variation, Stuart Chase]
o Unfortunately, in science what You 'believe' is irrelevant. ["Orion", HBA forum]
o Only fools and charlatans know everything and understand everything." -Anton Chekhov
 
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Strange that there was no immediate shutdown of the engine(s) upon breaking away from the pad, and presumably ground instrumentation and control circuitry. Amazing that there was no range safety destruct for the rocket, instead it appeared to just run out of fuel. Oh, that's right, in China it's safety third.
 
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Dread? I am too far away to dread that spectacular failure. On another website there is a claim the hold-down was designed for 600T thrust and the produced thrust was supposed to be 820 T.


This is what I dread: 7 people wounded; 10 cars and 4 homes damaged.

Some twit with a mortar launcher for a 6inch bomb setting up on the street in a close built residential neighborhood.
 
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instead it appeared to just run out of fuel.
Click to expand...

The fireball on impact would suggest that they did successfully shut down engines and there was plenty of full left. It's likely that breaking free from its clamps, etc., severely damaged the mechanical structure of the rocket and possibly one or more of the engines as well.

TTFN (ta ta for now)
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert! faq731-376 forum1529 Entire Forum list
 
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No, IRstuff, that didn't look like a commanded shutdown at all. And a real range-safety system would have blown the tanks open, creating an air fireball, not letting the full tanks crash to the ground.
 
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It it mindboggling to me how, with relatively open desert areas, The PRC does this kind of testing, and launches, near/over densely populated areas. This was catastrophe looking for an opportunity to happen.

Regards, Wil Taylor
o Trust - But Verify!
o For those who believe, no proof is required; for those who cannot believe, no proof is possible. [variation, Stuart Chase]
o Unfortunately, in science what You 'believe' is irrelevant. ["Orion", HBA forum]
o Only fools and charlatans know everything and understand everything." -Anton Chekhov
 
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that didn't look like a commanded shutdown at all.
Click to expand...

Regardless of how it looked, the thrust obviously stopped and there was obviously a ton of fuel still in the tanks. Rocket engines almost never fail to a shutdown mode.

TTFN (ta ta for now)
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert! faq731-376 forum1529 Entire Forum list
 
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You might have missed the true meaning of Scott Manley's comment "engine-rich exhaust".
That would explain a reduction in thrust before exhaustion of fuel.
 
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Failed engines stopped burning their fuel... leaving plenty in the tank for later fireworks.
Hey, it's just conjecture and I'm making fun.
I don't have enough information for a serious critique.
 
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Hey, it's just conjecture and I'm making fun.
I don't have enough information for a serious critique.
Click to expand...

Fair enough, but I would guess that a 9-combustion chamber rocket is unlikely to fail safe; it could happen, I suppose, if the failure mode happened to be exactly the same as the emergency shutdown mode. What are the odds of that, when other things have also gone wrong? ;-)

TTFN (ta ta for now)
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert! faq731-376 forum1529 Entire Forum list
 
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