Six days ago, China's National Space Administration launched two new satellites into Earth orbit. Although the launch was hailed as a success, it almost ended in disaster – and has sparked concern and criticism of the conduct of China's space industry. We used ChatGPT to learn more about the successful launch and the disaster involved.
The local space agency's Long March 3B rocket took off from the Xichang satellite launch center in Sichuan province with new satellites to join the Beidoo Positioning System, China's GPS competitor, which has so far included 56 satellites. Everything went well – at least by Chinese standards. However, later testimonies and chilling video footage surfaced on the Chinese social network Weibo, according to which parts of the missile on which the satellites were launched crashed in populated areas, endangering the lives of civilians.
To explain this phenomenon, it is important to understand how space launches work: rockets are made up of huge fuel tanks, designed to generate tremendous thrust to take the payload out of gravity. After reaching sufficient altitude, the fuel tanks detach, and the rocket head containing satellites, astronauts or any other payload continues on their way to space. In the United States, we have become accustomed in recent years to seeing these fuel tanks land in a controlled reusable manner – but until recently it was taken for granted that these tanks fall and are destroyed, usually in the ocean, and sometimes in remote land areas.
Heads up: it's been a while, but this kind of falling booster action was a feature of the Long March 3B launches of Beidou satellites from Xichang. https://t.co/rRM0mQ2g0p https://t.co/UnFXaoGgC4 pic.twitter.com/7XkRCTFLaW
— Andrew Jones (@AJ_FI) December 26, 2023
In the case of China's Long March missile, it seems that the insistence on crashing fuel tanks in unpopulated areas has been completely forgotten. In the latest launch, as seen in the video, one of the tanks landed in a wooded area frequented by civilians, while the other reportedly landed very close to the house. This is dangerous not only because of the risk of civilian casualties in the fall, but also because of its side effects – gas emitted from the destroyed tank that can be toxic to people in the area.
This is not the first time that seemingly successful Chinese launches have almost ended in disaster for the country's common people; In 2019, it was reported that a fuel tank of the missile crashed into a populated house, completely destroying it. Such incidents raise concerns about safety and accuracy measures in China's space missions. The country has been severely criticized by the West for this conduct, but refuses to admit to faulty conduct. Russia, for its part, is accused of similar and even more sinister behavior – after the start of the war in Ukraine, it implicitly threatened to cause the International Space Station to crash into Europe, in retaliation for its support for Ukraine and American involvement in the region.
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