The Long March 3B rocket is one of China's oldest active and most reliable boosters, with more than five dozen successful launches. On Thursday, however, the rocket failed when it attempted to launch an Indonesian telecommunications satellite, Nusantara Dua, from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center.
Although ground-based observations showed the first and second stages of the rocket performing nominally, apparently something went wrong with the final stage needed for a boost into geostationary transfer orbit. Chinese media reports indicate that the third stage failed due to unspecified reasons and that the 5.5-ton satellite fell back into Earth's atmosphere.
From a comment on the arstechnica article:
https://twitter.com/sybil_ms/status/1248253670476546048 (Picture of a fireball falling from the sky.)
Residents on Guam and Saipan heard a loud explosion and then debris falling from the sky. Homeland Security said it's the March 3B. Here is some video of what was seen pic.twitter.com/JqwWIK5Uxk
— Ms Sybil Ludington (@sybil_ms) April 9, 2020
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 10 2020, @11:27AM (4 children)
The Chinese Communist Party is perfect and it is racist and stigmatizing to call their non-success a failure. As Nature explains: [nature.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 10 2020, @03:12PM (1 child)
Space forces in action?
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday April 10 2020, @04:26PM
Forces like Dark Energy?
Causing rockets to fail.
People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 10 2020, @11:34PM
WHO shouldn't have named it COVID-19. It reminds people that the virus came from China. COVID-19: China Originated Virus in December 2019.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Sulla on Friday April 10 2020, @11:45PM
Also not allowed,
SARS-nCoV-2
Why you ask? What are the political ramifications of the people of China knowing they were attacked by another SARS virus?
When it became known that 2019-nCoV was actually SARS-nCoV-2, why was it necessary to name it COVID-19?
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-51732042 [bbc.com]
https://citizenlab.ca/2020/03/censored-contagion-how-information-on-the-coronavirus-is-managed-on-chinese-social-media/ [citizenlab.ca]
https://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/asiapcf/east/05/14/sars.censor/ [cnn.com]
Why has talking about SARS in China been censored since 2003?
Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam