China's most powerful rocket failed yesterday. What does that mean for the country's space plans?

[Eugene]

Source: The Verge

China’s most powerful rocket failed yesterday. What does that mean for the country’s space plans?

The Long March 5 is a crucial part of China’s spaceflight future
by Loren Grush Jul 3, 2017, 12:58pm EDT

Yesterday, the launch of a Chinese communications satellite ended in failure when the rocket carrying the probe somehow malfunctioned during flight. It’s a significant loss for China since the vehicle that failed — the Long March 5 — is the country’s premier heavy-lift rocket. And its failure could have a significant impact on the future of China’s ambitions in space.

It’s still unclear exactly what happened. Shortly after the flight, China’s official press agency, Xinhua, simply reported that “an anomaly occurred” during launch and that there would be an investigation into the problem. But some clues seem to indicate the issue may have started in the main core of the rocket. A plume of gas was seen around the main engines of the vehicle about six minutes into flight, according to Spaceflight 101.

It was only the second launch of this particular type of rocket. However, China has big plans for this vehicle: the Long March 5 is one of the most powerful rockets in the world, nearly matching the capability of the US’s Delta-IV Heavy. The next flight of the Long March 5 is meant to go to the Moon, sending two modules to the lunar surface — one to collect samples and another to return those samples to Earth. This mission was tentatively scheduled for November of this year, but yesterday’s failure makes that timeline uncertain.

“This is important. The Long March 5 is their flagship rocket,” Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist at Harvard and spaceflight expert, tells The Verge. “It’s key for their ambitions. ... They’ve got to get it right.”

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Read more: https://www.theverge.com/2017/7/3/15913448/chinese-rocket-long-march-5-failure-moon-mission

[Docreed2003]

1. Not to minimize their loss...

But I would refer folks back to the early days of the US Space program and the redstone rocket failures...it takes time to get it right!

[Duppers]

3. Absolutely.

[lastlib]

4. "We choose to go to the moon..."

"...not because it is easy, but because it is hard." --John F. Kennedy, 1961.

[Doug the Dem]

5. Exactly

The clips of OUR early rocket launches were downright pathetic.

[Warpy]

2. It means engineers will go over all the pieces they can try

to figure out what failed so they can try again.

The US has been at this for 50+ years and we still lose one once in a while.