China's SpaceX Copy Destroyed in Bizarre Test Failure - Booster Static Fire Becomes Flight Test

In China Space Pioneer was performing a static fire test of the Booster for their Tianlong 3 rocket, a design which is a close copy of SpaceX's Falcon 9.
Due to an engineering failure the rocket broke free of the test stand, flew under power for about 30 seconds before crashing back to Earth in a spectacular fireball.

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[amyshaw]

Probably because they didn't say "that's not going anywhere" after they tightened down the ratchet straps

[beast]

Sure it was supposed to fly next month, but look at it this way: Space Pioneer has launched their first rocket way ahead of schedule!

[ElectronicsExplored]

We had RUD, now we have RULE - Rapid Unscheduled Liftoff Event

[daktus]

I love how the wikipedia page now says for the announced flight tests with the numbers "Y1" "Y2" and "Y3" outcome: planned and for this rocket outcome: unexpected liftoff

[aspzx]

I always wondered what would happen if a rocket broke free of its restraints during a static fire and well, I guess we answered that question.

[solandri]

I can just imagine a conversation before this. "Shouldn't we put a self-destruct system on this, just in case?" "Why? It's a static test. It's not going anywhere."

[kerry]

Rocket scientist #1: "I thought you tied it down?"
Rocket scientist #2: "I thought _you_ tied it down?"

[richcandoit]

This reminds me of that scene in Iron Man 2 where they were in court and showed other countries “cloning” the Iron Man suit 😂😂

[h.a.]

Flight control: "Countdown 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, ignition! T+3 seconds all engines nominal. T+5 seconds we got lift-off, T+7 seco- WAIT A MINUTE... *LIFT-OFF?!"*

[masteronone]

It's interesting to note that the observation "You can never have too many clamps" has currency outside the woodworking community.

[bricc]

This is the sort of accident I would expect in a typical KSP playthrough, not in real life

[TheSafierdrgn]

The camera guy in the first video had one job...just one job.

[MoraneAI]

Way back in time the Americans had a static fire turn into a launch. It was a Viking rocket, an immediate successor to the V2's that the Americans obtained from Germany. The early models had a steel tube frame but they upgraded to a monocoque aluminium design. For the static test fire they could no longer bolt the steel frame to the launch pad so instead it was held down by two bolts through the aluminium. On firing it built up to full thrust and departed. When they looked afterwards, two long triangles of aluminium skin were still bolted to the launch pad.
Being a test launch, all the theodolites and tracking cameras were not arranged, but one guy happened to be at one station so was able to get one track on it. That didn't pinpoint it but at least they had some idea where it had gone and were able to locate it. This happened at the White Sands proving ground in New Mexico.
Not to be confused with the later Viking probes, this was a suborbital sounding rocket.

[dewayneblue]

For those asking where the Flight Termination System (FTS) was, the Chinese space agency calls its FTS "village ", and the rocket simply needed some time to reach it.

[SpiraSpiraSpira]

>be me
>just hired as static test supervisor
>show up to work
>it’s dynamic

[halepauhana]

Love the way Scott says "Bangs and Booms"! That should be a new series!

[syjiang]

The truly spectacular failure here is that the test was performed in this region. This was located in Henan, the province where my family was originally from and the population density here is huge. That mountain is located right in between Luoyang at 50 km west, the old imperial Chinese capital, and Zhengzhou at 50 km east, the current provincial capital. Luoyang has a population of 7 million, Zhengzhou has a population of 12 million! Yeah lets test fire rocket right in the middle of the most dense urban population centers on the northern China plain. Real big brains.

[sebastianahrens]

The dude filming the booster following its path the entire time except for the explosion is driving me insane. WHY MAN, WHY?!

[pyalot]

Aliexpress: „100% genuine Falcon 9, 90% off, free delivery.“

[Sir_Uncle_Ned]

Apparently that particular engine testing mount was rated for only 600 tons of thrust, and this is “chinesium” so probably closer to 500 tons failure load. This rocket was producing 820+ tons of thrust, meaning they exceeded the rating by 220 tons, so no wonder it failed