China’s first private rocket mission to outer space ends in failure
- Landspace Tech’s ZQ-1 took off from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre at 4pm on Saturday carrying a small satellite for state broadcaster CCTV
- Mission failed due to problem with rocket’s third stage, company says
A technology firm has failed in its attempt to become the first privately owned company in China to send a rocket into outer space.
The three-stage ZQ-1, developed by Beijing-based Landspace Tech, took off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in northern China’s Inner Mongolia region at 4pm on Saturday, the company said on the social media platform WeChat.
Clear skies meant that spectators were able to see the first and second stages of the rocket separate as planned within the first five minutes of its flight, news portal Zjol.com.cn reported.
But at 6.40pm, something went wrong with the third stage and the rocket’s mission to put a small satellite into sun-synchronous orbit for state broadcaster CCTV was deemed to have failed.
“This final result is not perfect, but we have achieved some of our goals, especially the key steps like the rocket’s stages and cowling separation,” a spokesman told a press conference at the launch site.
“We will analyse the information from remote sensing records and try to find out what went wrong,” the person said.