Beijing: China’s ambitious space programme suffered a rare setback on Sunday as its new heavy-lift carrier rocket, the Long March-5 Y2 failed to put the country’s largest satellite into orbit.
An anomaly occurred during the flight of the rocket, which blasted off at 7:23 pm (local time) from Wenchang Space Launch Centre in southern province of Hainan, state-run Xinhua reported. Further investigation will be carried out, it said.
The blast which was telecast live initially appeared successful as the rocket blasted off seemingly without problem. But Xinhua later reported that the rocket launch has failed.
The Long March-5 made its maiden flight in November 2016 from Wenchang, sending its payload into pre-set orbit. The rocket, carried the Shijian-18 satellite.
The launch is the last test for the Long March-5 series before its mission to send the Chang’e-5 lunar probe into space in the latter half of this year, which will return with samples, the report said.
China is carrying out massive space programme in recent years with missions to moon and manned missions to build a space station which is currently under construction. According to experts, the massive heavy rockets also have fined tuned China’s missile power.
