A Kuaizhou-1A rocket from commercial company Expace, from China, failed to enter orbit after its launch, which took place at 10:15 am on Wednesday (23), local time (XNUMX:XNUMX on Tuesday, at Brasilia time). ). On board the vehicle were two Geespace satellites, which were supposed to test autonomous navigation assistance but were lost in the crash.
According to the SpaceNews website, the rocket took off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, a base belonging to the Chinese National Space Administration. The state news agency Xinhua confirmed the failure. “The rocket flew abnormally, and the launch mission failed. The specific reasons are being looked into and investigated.”
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China breaks its record for rocket launches in 2021
Last year, Expace failed in July (during the first and, so far, only launch of the Kuaizhou-11 rocket) and in September (in the first attempt to launch the Kuaizhou-1A). After these episodes, the Kuaizhou-1A rocket had a sequence of three successful launches in three months: September, October and November 2021.
This recent episode represents the third failure in China's 51 launches made in 2021. Earlier this year, the country broke its national record of 39 launches in one year, which was achieved in 2018 and 2020.
As Expace works on a recovery plan, other emerging space companies in China can take the opportunity to try to fill the gap and gain experience launching rockets.
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