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posted by Fnord666 on Friday April 10 2020, @03:12AM   Printer-friendly
from the expensive-fireball dept.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/04/china-suffers-its-second-launch-failure-in-less-than-a-month/

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


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  • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday April 10 2020, @04:28PM

    by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Friday April 10 2020, @04:28PM (#980850) Journal

    Would it violate the laws of physics for rockets to be able to fail due to rocket worker dissatisfaction?

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    People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
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