Hong Kong —
A Chinese rocket set to launch a satellite into orbit blew-up seconds after liftoff Monday, marking the relatively rare failure for a rocket considered a workhorse of Beijing’s space program.
The Long March 7A rocket erupted into a massive fireball just 85 seconds after blasting off from the Wenchang Space Launch Site on the island of Hainan on Monday night, video showed.
State news agency Xinhua confirmed the failure three hours after the launch, saying “the rocket experienced an anomaly during flight.” The cause is under investigation, it added, without providing further information.
SpaceX founder Elon Musk, who has watched a number of his own rockets explode after launch, commented on X saying: “Rockets are insanely hard.”
