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On June 30, an accident occurred in Gongyi, Henan Province when a private enterprise launched a rocket, and China's largest liquid launch vehicle "Tianlong No. 3" developed by Tianbing Technology lost control and rushed into the sky during ground testing, and then fell 1.5 kilometers away and caught fire and exploded.
Although the accident suffered heavy losses, from a positive point of view, it also shows the achievements of technological accumulation made by private aerospace enterprises on the mainland in recent years. This accident has provided valuable experience for the development of private rockets, allowing people to see the potential of the development of private aerospace and the hard work made behind the scenes.
On the day of the accident, Tianlong-3 was originally scheduled to conduct a full-system hot test at the test site, which was the last ground test before launch. However, the rocket suddenly lost control after ignition, flew straight upwards several hundred meters high, deviated from course, and finally crashed into a mountain forest 1.5 kilometers away and exploded and caught fire.
Although arrangements had been made for the evacuation of local residents prior to the test, the huge shock wave and high temperature flames from the rocket explosion still raised public safety concerns. Fortunately, there were no casualties in the tragedy. With a height of 71 meters and a diameter of 3.8 meters, the Tianlong-3 has a take-off mass of 590 tons and can carry a payload of 17 tons into low-earth orbit.
It uses liquid oxygen and kerosene as fuel, and is equipped with nine rocket engines that can be deeply throttled, which can theoretically be recycled and reused multiple times. The rocket, which is seen as an important symbol of China's private space community catching up with SpaceX's Falcon series, was originally scheduled to launch for the first time at the Wenchang Cosmodrome in Hainan in early September.
The accident disrupted the launch plan of Tianbing Technology and raised concerns about the safety of private enterprises participating in commercial space activities. According to the analysis of industry insiders, this may be due to the excessive thrust of the engine, which causes the structure failure of the connection system between the rocket and the launcher at the moment of ignition, so that the rocket loses its restraint and flies in a straight line.
At present, Tianbing Technology has not announced the exact cause of the accident, but this explanation is not impossible. Similar accidents are not uncommon in space powers, and even SpaceX has had many tragic incidents of rockets exploding on the ground and mid-flight. While these losses are painful, they also contain valuable lessons.
As the Global Times commentary article said, from a positive point of view, this accident also reflects that the technical strength of the mainland's private rocket enterprises is catching up and surpassing, otherwise there would not be the problem of "too large" engine thrust. Prior to this accident, Tianbing Technology had successfully built and verified a small liquid rocket engine.
They adopted modular design thinking engineering methods, continuous rapid trial and error and optimization, and finally overcame the development problem of high-thrust engines. Aerospace technology itself is extremely complex, requiring enterprises to invest manpower and material resources in the long term. The vigorous development of private aerospace enterprises in mainland China in recent years demonstrates the confidence and determination of the industry in the prospect of commercial aerospace.
They have made important contributions to the realization of China's aerospace dream, and also proved that private capital can play a huge role in the high-tech field. After this accident, the relevant companies will summarize the lessons learned and strengthen the safety system and operation process of the rocket ground test to ensure that similar situations do not happen again.
At the same time, government departments will also cooperate with the improvement of supervision to provide policy support for the healthy and orderly development of private aerospace. This difficult but positive process will propel China to become the world's commercial space power and further demonstrate the mainland's comprehensive national strength.
With the continuous progress of technology, the participation of private enterprises in commercial space will provide more possibilities for human beings to explore space. Although the road to launching China's private rockets is tortuous, the prospects are broad and deserve the encouragement and support of all sectors of society. This accident will only make China's private aerospace more mature and resilient, and finally realize the space dream.