The Guardian-Chinese space rocket crashes in flames after accidental launch
July 1, 2024 3 min 525 words
西方媒体的报道常常带着有色眼镜，以下是一篇关于中国火箭发射事故的报道总结和评论： 报道概述： 这篇报道主要讲述了一家中国私营航天公司空间先锋（Space Pioneer）的 天龙3号空间火箭在近日的一次测试中意外发射，并坠毁在中部城市巩义附近的山区。报道称，火箭的第一阶段在测试中由于火箭和测试台连接处的结构故障而意外启动，公司称初步调查未发现有人员伤亡。 评论： 这篇报道虽然客观地描述了火箭意外发射和坠毁的事件，但其中也存在一些带有偏见的描述和隐含的负面评价。例如，报道强调了火箭 坠毁并爆炸成火焰，而非简单描述意外发射，这可能夸大了事件的严重性。此外，报道中提及的中国商业航天公司 竞相 进入该行业，以及测试中心 深处 中国内陆，可能暗示中国航天行业的发展是盲目和不负责任的。事实上，中国允许私营部门投资航天产业，推动了创新和竞争，这与西方国家的航天发展历程并无二致。此外，航天测试中心位于内陆，可能更多是出于技术和安全考虑，而非报道所暗示的 不顾后果。总的来说，该报道虽然提供了基本事实，但通过选择性描述和负面暗示，可能会在西方读者中产生对中国航天行业的负面印象。客观公正的报道应避免此类倾向性描述，以全面中立的角度呈现事件。
The space rocket of a Chinese private company crashed and exploded into flames near a city on Sunday, after it accidentally launched during a test.
The first stage of the Tianlong-3 rocket left its launch pad due to a structural failure at the connection between the rocket and the test stand, said company Beijing Tianbing, also known as Space Pioneer, in a statement on its official WeChat account. The rocket landed in a hilly area of the city of Gongyi in central China, it said.
Video footage from the incident published by Chinese digital media outlet The Paper showed the rocket soaring straight up into the air before losing power and turning horizontally, falling back down to earth and exploding into flames on nearby forested hills.
An initial investigation of the unplanned flight found there were no reports of casualties, it said.
Wow. This is apparently what was supposed to be a STATIC FIRE TEST today of a Tianlong-3 first stage by China's Space Pioneer. That's catastrophic, not static. Firm was targeting an orbital launch in the coming months. https://t.co/BY9MgJeE7A pic.twitter.com/L6ronwLW1N
— Andrew Jones (@AJ_FI) June 30, 2024
Parts of the rocket stage were scattered within a “safe area” but caused a local fire, according to a separate statement from the Gongyi emergency management bureau.
The fire has since been extinguished and no one was hurt, the bureau said.
The two-stage Tianlong-3, “Sky Dragon 3”, is a partly reusable rocket under development by Space Pioneer, one of a small group of private-sector rocket makers that have grown rapidly over the past five years.
Falling rocket debris in China after launches is not unheard of, but it is very rare for part of a rocket under development to make an unplanned flight out of its test site and crash.
According to Space Pioneer, the first stage of the Tianlong-3 ignited normally during a hot test but later detached from the test bench due to structural failure.
A rocket can consist of several stages, with the first, or lowest, stage igniting and propelling the rocket upwards upon its launch. When the fuel is exhausted, the first stage falls off, and the second stage ignites, keeping the rocket in propulsion.
Space Pioneer says the performance of Tianlong-3 is comparable to SpaceX’s Falcon 9, which is also a two-stage rocket.
In April 2023, Space Pioneer launched a kerosene-oxygen rocket, the Tianlong-2, becoming the first private Chinese firm to send a liquid-propellant rocket into space.
Chinese commercial space companies have rushed into the sector since 2014 when private investment in the industry was allowed by the state.
Many started making satellites while others including Space Pioneer, focused on developing reusable rockets that can significantly cut mission costs.
The test sites of such companies can be found along China’s coastal areas, located by the sea due to safety reasons. But some are also sited deep in the country’s interior such as Space Pioneer’s test centre in Gongyi, a city of 800,000 people in the central province of Henan.